Mid-Year Check Up

June has come to a close. The year of 2007 is half over already. How has my reading measured up so far?

34 books read
23 novels
4 non-fiction works
4 books of poetry
2 dramas
8 kiddie lit.
9 classics
4 works from ancient history period

I know that I read The Importance of Being Earnest sometime this year but I never made a record of it on this blog or anywhere else but I thoroughly enjoyed it. I also thought the movie with Colin Firth was very funny and another perfect role for Mr. Firth. I added it to the top of my running list of this year's reads in the sidebar.

This was the first time I had ever listened to a book on tape. I had always thought I wouldn't like it because I am not an auditory learner but I have found that I take a lot of pleasure in listening to a story well read. I never would have considered it reading before; after all, I am not looking at words written on a page and deciphering their meaning, but so many fellow bloggers have no qualms with it so I feel confident in labeling it as a book read.

I am pleased with my perseverance in the couple of challenges I've participated in this year. They have exposed me to genres I had not previously been in much contact with. I will continue to join challenges in moderation while I work through the goals I set for myself at the beginning of the year. This blog has been a great encouragement for me to be diligent about thinking about what I have read instead of just reading and forgetting, and in being fair to the book and true to my feelings about each book.

So what have been my favorites so far?

• Silas Marner


• The Thirteenth Tale


• The Last Unicorn


• Stardust


• Coraline


• The Odyssey


• The Five People You Meet in Heaven


• The Cricket in Times Square


• A Midsummer Night's Dream


• Alice in Wonderland


• Madame de Treymes


• The Importance of Being Ernest

And what 1 book do I wish I hadn't wasted my time with?

• The Penelopiad

Review:The Day I Swapped My Dad for Two Goldfish

The Day I Swapped my Dad for Two Goldfish
by Neil Gaiman

After our fun experience with listening to Coraline last month I thought we'd give this title a try. I thought it was a book on tape. Well, it's not. It's a picture book. With a cute little story about a boy(and his sister) who swaps his dad for two goldfish(duh) and all the trouble they experience in retrieving him.

But the most endearing thing about the book was the note added at the end a couple of years after the book was originally published. Mr. Gaiman explains how his son gave him the idea for the book and who the two main characters are modeled after. I have an ever expanding image of Neil Gaiman, family man in my head with each new children's book I read. I am impressed. I am certainly a fan.

Review:Madame de Treymes

Madame de Treymes

by Edith Wharton

While at the library on Tuesday I espied a copy of Hermione Lee's biography of Edith Wharton. The House of Mirth is one of my all-time favorite classics, and I've heard good things about Lee's biographies, so I picked it up. And let me tell you, that was a feat. This book has 800 pages.

But last night I was not in the mood to read anymore about the social class of Wharton's parents and I just didn't want to get into the other two non-fictions I'm working on so I scanned my shelves. I pulled out a tiny booklet. It measures 4in. x 5.5in. and only 87 pages in depth. "That's a book I could get through tonight and it still fits with my current reads," I said to myself. (don't you talk to yourself occasionally too?)

Ms. Wharton's work was everything I remember from The House of Mirth but this time I read with more depth having some background into Wharton's childhood and the forming of her politics. It's a love story that can never be consummated. It's about a man of truth and integrity doing what he knows to be right even though it means giving up his own happiness. It's also about a family willing to give up all integrity in order to preserve itself. What is most important in life and how much are you willing to sacrifice for it? That is the question Wharton wants her readers to ask themselves.

Wharton is an expert at drawing clear images of her characters. She brings an insider's view of the "rat race" of the wealthy from the end of the 19th century on into the beginning of the 20th. She shows from different angles just how hard it was to be happy in this environment and how nearly impossible it was to keep ahold of one's personal ethics at the top.

If you would like to read this short story for yourself there are many etexts online, including this one. Project Gutenburg has an audio book version as well.

I will be reading Wharton's Age of Innocence for the Book Awards Reading Challenge. Hopefully by then I will have completed the Hermione Lee biography. I only have 700 more pages left to go.

Sad News

I just learned from Sarala at Blogaway that Nattie from Nattie Writes passed away on June 7th. I have been participating in her Newbery Challenge and I knew that she had been diagnosed with cancer since she started the challenge but the last time I visited her blog she was very sick but still hanging on. Apparently the last time I checked her blog was 2 days before she died.

From her site you can tell that Nattie loved the Lord. She made a point of looking at the bright side of everything. Even as she was in the hospital in tremendous pain she would dictate to her daddy wonderfully encouraging posts for her readers. Her daddy is keeping her blog running, reposting her older entries. My heart goes out to Natties family and friends.

I will continue to read from my Newbery Challenge list.

I am very sad today with this news.

Review:Alice in Wonderland

Alice's Adventures in Wonderland
& Through the Looking Glass
by Lewis Carroll

I am not quite ready to leave off the fantasy/fairy tale genre. I chose Alice because it was available, being on my shelves already, and I thought it would be fun. Both Dragon Slayer and Goldilocks have read it for school and told me how different it was from the Disney version. And it was different, though Disney Incorporated many images from both books into the one movie.

Everyone knows the story of Alice falling down the rabbit hole and finding herself in a place where logic is played with in a most exasperating way so I won't bother you with a summery of the first book. The second book is about Alice's looking-glass world. Instead of playing cards, many of the characters are chess pieces. Alice wants to be a queen like the Red Queen and the White Queen so she takes a trip across the land that is laid out like a chess board, with square forests and valleys. She has various adventures and meets many eccentric(and confusing) personages along the way.

Simply put, I loved it. It is every bit as delightful as the movie, and more so. Alice is endearing and everyone else is entertaining, even while they are ordering execution by beheading. Any child would be charmed by this Wonderland.

An interesting factoid about the author: he wrote himself into the story. Mr. Dodgson(Lewis Carroll's real name) was the Dodo. In fact, most of the other persons in the story were people who were present on the rainy day when the little tale was first told, afterward requested by Alice Liddell to be written down for her personal enjoyment, and later to be published for the pleasure of all children(and a good many adults). If you haven't read it yet I recommend you do.

Review:The Cricket in Times Square

The Cricket in Times Square

by George Selden

My family is really getting into books on tape/CD right now. After Coraline we were looking for something new to listen to. I searched the library shelves and found this Newbery Honor book that I recognised as one I've wanted to read for a while but never gotten around to, So we checked it out.

This is the story of Chester the cricket, Tucker the mouse, Harry the cat, and the Bellini family who own a newspaper stand in the subway station in Times Square. Mario Bellini finds a frightened and starving cricket near the newsstand one Saturday night and decides to keep it as a pet. The cricket befriends a mouse and a cat(they are the best of friends). Some bad things happen and some good things happen as the cricket adjusts to life in New York.

This story reminded me a bit of Charlotte's Web; not that the story lines are anything alike but the pace and the overall feel of them are so similar. Each character has a distinctive personality but I loved them all. Mr. Selden portrayed New Yorkers as interesting, sensitive, tender-hearted and diverse but connected with each other. The ending, while melancholy, is just right.

Because we listened to this on CD I missed out on all the great pictures drawn by Garth Williams, the same illustrator for the Little House books and Charlotte's Web. Having flipped through them afterward, they go perfectly with the pictures in my mind's eye. He did a great job.

I can understand why this won a Newbery Honor Award in 1961. Island of the Blue Dolphins took the prize for that year. I'm curious to know how it stands up to The Cricket in Times Square. I'll be adding it to the TBR pile and let you know.

Review:A Midsummer Night's Dream

A Midsummer Night's Dream

by William Shakespeare

In high school, one of the few books I was required to read was Romeo and Juliet. I remember trying to read it the first time and going cross-eyed. On my second attempt I broke down in tears. I just didn't understand a single thing going on. After watching the movie and perhaps play-acting a few scenes I gave the play one more go and was rewarded. I understood! Not only could I follow the storyline but I could feel all of the emotions. I fell in love with the poetic quality. I memorized several sections of declared passion.

I always thought that what I loved was just that I understood it. But having read A Midsummer Night's Dream I see that it was more than just the elation of an accomplishment. I loved the language and the pictures it could draw on the imagination. I have this same feeling again. I am in love with Shakespeare. This time I will savor this sensation and come back frequently for more.

Though I was already familiar with the storyline, I thought it wouldn't hurt at all to read my children's retold versions to start. The Lambs' Tales From Shakespeare fit the bill. It gave an accurate rendering and wet my whistle for the real thing. By the end of Act I, Scene I of the actual play the theologian watched me float through the room with a pleasant smile across my face. With several distractions to interrupt my enjoyment I still managed to read it in a couple of hours time. I spent a pleasant evening remembering the movie version, the one with Michelle Pfeiffer that I had just watched a few months ago. It was a little modernized(by that I mean sexualized) but it really captured the magic of the fairy wood. Once everyone else was in bed I pulled out Shakespeare Stories by Leon Garfield and fell in love all over again. The Garfield retelling is fantastic.

It sounds odd but I feel like I've just discovered Shakespeare for the first time. I have discovered a sensation in my soul that will always require me to be reading something by Shakespeare on a regular basis. I am already thinking about how fun it will be to introduce the Bard of Avon to my children. At least one of them I'm sure will be in raptures as I am. And I want to talk about it with everyone I come in contact with.

This is the final book for the Once Upon a Time Challenge. I have had a magical time reading fantasy and fairy tales. Finishing with Shakespeare was a touch of genius Carl. And look! That's the first picture with my beloved Poppet baby. I think his name should be Puck. I only hope he will not cause as much mischief as the other Puck did.

48 Hour Reading Challenge

I am glad that I gave this Reading Challenge a try and now know how much I can read in how much time. Here is what I accomplished:

Fairy Tale by Alice Thomas Ellis
The Five People You Meet in Heaven by Mitch Albom
Lady Susan/The Watsons/Sanditon by Jane Austen

21 hours of reading
3 books
about 600 pages

While this may not seem to be anything to brag about, and judging by the numbers of some of the official participants' it's not, I am satisfied that I gave it my best. I have always known I was an extremely slow reader so this comes as no surprise, though I was initially a little frustrated with it. Instead, I now consider it an accomplishment and a learning experience. And perhaps it is proof that I have a lot more leisure time on my hands than I had previously thought considering how many books I have been getting read lately. This is surely a sign that I am leading a simple and uncluttered life and that's exactly what I want right now. When school starts back up next year, and we take on a busier schedule, I will have considerably less time to read as I do now and I will certainly miss it, but I will be trading in my personal quiet times for learning and exploring with my children and watching as their minds expand and take in knowledge and wisdom. I hope to be taking in equal amounts of both for myself, if not more. Cheerio!

Review:Lady Susan

Lady Susan/The Watsons/Sanditon
by Jane Austen

This was the only book I managed to complete on the second day of my 48 Hour Reading Challenge. It's been siting on the shelf, next to all the other Austen novels, but is the only one I haven't yet read. It was completely different than her other novels.

The book is a series of letters written to and from various characters involved in the story. Lady Susan is a gold-digging temptress of the worst kind. If you know who Rebecca Sharp is then you have a very clear picture of what I mean. She lives to draw men as her admirers whether they are single, engaged and married. She schemes behind every one's backs but she confides all her tricks to her good friend, Mrs. Johnson, so the reader knows all along just how bad Lady Susan is. She is attempting to lure a wealthy younger man into matrimony while securing a another man to marry her 17 year old daughter for what can only be seen as punishment for having a moral conscience and not taking part in her sordid lifestyle. As I've given away quite a bit already I shall stop there.

The other two titles listed with Lady Susan are the beginnings of 2 other unfinished novels. They are more like the typical Austen fare and leave one wanting more. There is a copy of Sanditon that has now been finished by "another lady", as it mysteriously states on the cover. I will likely read it at some point but I tend to be a purist so we'll just have to see how that goes.

As is usual with Austen, I loved it. Lady Susan was very clever and engaging. How I do wish that Miss Austen had written more! I will soon have to check out her earlier works like Love and Friendship and Catharine.

Review:The Five People You Meet in Heaven

The Five People You meet in Heaven

by Mitch Albom

I had seen the made for TV movie when it aired a couple of years ago so when I found the book at the second-hand store I figured it would be an easy story with a feel good ending for those times when I just want to veg.

This is the story of Eddie, who dies in an amusement park accident. He meets five different people who have had some impact on his life, whether he knew the person or not, and they each teach him one lesson he needs to know in order to understand why his life was what it was. Eddie has always felt that his life was a waste because he never accomplished anything meaningful. He was haunted by regrets and bitterness. At the end Eddie is shown that no life is without meaning; we each serve a valuable purpose. Heaven is, initially about finding out what your purpose was.

Theology aside, this was a short, pleasant read. The characters felt real and the feelings were accurate. The book is fluff and sentiment but sometimes that's just what the doctor ordered. It's a feel good story with an encouraging ending. The themes are connectedness, sacrifice, forgiveness, and enduring love. It's not a bad way to spend a couple of hours.

Review:Fairy Tale

Fairy Tale

by Alice Thomas Ellis

Last weekend quite a few book bloggers participated in the 48 Hour Reading Challenge. I didn't know about it in time to join but I wanted to give it a try and see what would happen. This is my first book read.

Fairy Tale was recommended on a blog sometime last week but I cannot for the life of me think whose blog it was on. It sounded good so I reserved it at the library. I picked it up yesterday for my first read in my personal 48 Hour Challenge.

Eloise wants to live in a world of peace with nature, away from the rat race of the city. She brings a young man and a cat with her to a secluded red brick cottage on the edge of a wood. Her mother, Clair, and the mother's closest friend, Miriam, come for a visit and find that things are a little off here. More than just the extreme seclusion, Eloise's behavior gets more peculiar each day. Things really get crazy when Eloise brings home a baby. Did she steal it? Could she have been pregnant and no one know? And who are the strange doctors, nurses and other visitors that keep dropping in?

The book keeps your emotions in a state of confusion through almost the whole story. You are never sure that anything is what it seems. The book has no chapter breaks so you have a sense of urgency that mimics the build up of the plot. By the time you get to the end you want to shout, "What the heck just happened?" a question that Clair and Miriam are asking continually; but even they stop asking that question by the end and know that the "what" and "why" doesn't matter as much as getting out of that cottage as soon as possible.

I am still in a confused state about this book. I didn't hate it but I wouldn't consider it a candidate for rereading either. I don't like to be confused or to feel a situation is unresolved but that's exactly what you are left with when you close the covers and put the book aside. If I had more time I might be able to pinpoint a lesson or point to this story but for now I simply want to move on to something more comfortable.

A Thursday Thirteen

There is an hilarious meme posted at A Fraternity of Dreamers and Thinking About. Here's how to play:

1. Go to Google.com
2. Type your name and the word ‘needs’ in quotes in the search engine and hit the button. Give us 13 that make sense, if you can.

Petunia needs a garden.
Yes, an English garden please. With overgrown flowers and garden gnomes.

Petunia needs full sun and moist but well-drained soil.
Well, that certainly would help with the garden.

Petunia needs a dormant period.
That sounds appealing. Maybe I could walk around my sunny and well-drained garden during my dormant period.

Petunia needs a friendship.
Alas, it's true, especially since my one good friend is on a 5 week vacation.

Petunia needs a break from the housework.
I couldn't agree more.

Petunia needs a family who will understand her disability and will provide her with extra patience and love she needs.
Here here! Understanding, patience and love.

Petunia needs a loving retirement home that is willing to give her twice a day thyroid meds.
It's like they know me or something. How do they know about the thyroid meds?

Petunia needs to lose weight - a lot of weight.
Did you just call me fat?

The last thing Petunia needs is to be less skinny.
Did you just call me anorexic?

Petunia needs cutting back in order to stay attractive.
Oh, and I'm ugly too am I?!

Petunia Needs to Eat Worms
Now your just being mean.

Petunia Needs a Headpipe
I don't know what it is but it sounds illegal.

Petunia needs to get this checked out as soon as possible, as it is highly contagious.
Oh dear! That doesn't sound good at all. Guess I need more than just thyroid meds.

Review:The Penelopiad

The Penelopiad
by Margaret Atwood

I won't waste too much time on this review. I didn't like it. I don't go in for modern, feminist appraisals of ancient works. The one good thing about this book was the poetry. At least in the beginning it had a cute Musical feel to it. Then it went militant. If this is an accurate example of Atwood's work then I will have to take a pass on her books in the future.

Review:Djinn in the Nightingale's Eye

The Djinn in the Nightingale's Eye

by A.S. Byatt

In my quest for more great fairy tales by Byatt along the lines of the ones in Possession I was directed by Nymeth to read this book here. It was what I was looking for, mostly.

The first two stories, The Glass Coffin and Gode's Story, are taken directly from Possession. I loved The Glass Coffin the first time I read it and the second time when I reread it to Goldilocks, so I didn't mind reading it a third time. It is a true fairy tale about a poor tailor who is sent on an adventure to rescue a kidnapped princess. It is marvelous.

Gode's Story is about a young girl and a young sailor in love with each other and how they each miss out on each other's love because "the price is too high" but they both pay a much higher price in the end. This is no sappy fairy tale where everything turns out right in the end.

The Story of the Eldest Princess is my favorite of these tales. As the eldest Princess is sent out on a journey, it occurs to her that being the eldest princess of three, she is destined to fail. So she changes her story and finds it is just the way the story is supposed to go all along.

Dragon's Breath is a story with a bit more spookiness to it. It's not scary, just darker. Dragons are burning their way down a mountain and across a field toward a village that is so dull it weaves tapestries in the same design and with the same 4 colors as it has for generations on end. The inhabitants are forever changed by the dragons and their invasion.

The last story is a modern fairy tale set in Istanbul. Gillian is gifted a paper-weight, known as the Nightingale's Eye, that holds a Djinn, a Genie. As she is taking her time to make wise wishes there are other ancient fairy tales inter weaved into the story. This last tale is almost 200 pages long and slow reading, not necessarily boring but slow.

I was a little disappointed that most of these tales were recycled from other books but ultimately I was glad to read a book of Byatt's fairy tales. She understands how to bring up the most subtle feelings in her readers. Nymeth also suggested I read Elementals so I will be looking out for that title at my local library.

Review:The Odyssey

Penelope and the Suitors, 1912, Waterhouse

The Odyssey
by Homer
translated by Robert Fitzgerald

After all the glorified gore in The Iliad, with it's entrails and dragging bodies around, I was so much more pleased to read The Odyssey. There was some violence and macho, male bawdiness, but ultimately it was the action-packed story of a man desperate to see his beloved wife and son again; and the son in search of his honorable father and justice for his family name. There is storyline enough to keep you reading and adventure enough to make it interesting. The emotion is immense.

I am familiar with the story, having read children's versions in our homeschool, but I appear to be the only one in the US not made to read it in high school. I probably would have hated it then, both the story and the size of the tome. I am grateful to have read it during a time in my life when learning and big books are both a pleasure and a necessity for me.

One thing I was surprised at was the lack of story about the Trojan Horse. It is not at all in The Iliad and is only mentioned a couple of times in passing in The Odyssey. Yet this is arguably the most famous image associated with Odysseus. In fact, the victory over Troy is not a focus at all. It seems odd that after the very long narrative of the 9th year of the Trojan War in The Iliad that there would not be more to the story of how the war was won in this next installment. But both epics are more about the emotions of the characters and the involvement of the gods in the lives of men. Honor and courage, strength and beauty; these are the main themes.

In January I listed some reading goals for the year. This fulfills the top 3 goals of reading more poetry, history and classics. I have the book The Penelopiad to read next but I'm a bit anxious about it. I have so thoroughly enjoyed Odysseus' character and his journey that I am jealous to keep this image of him in my mind. I also have Greek Lyrics, translated by Richard Lattimore, on it's way from the library. I will not be leaving the ancient history period to soon.

A New Challenge

As the Once Upon a Time Challenge comes to a close, I am in the mood for another reading challenge. 3M@3AM is hosting the Book Awards Reading Challenge. It sounds very interesting and doable, especially if combined with the Newbery Challenge. You can participate on your blog or you can contribute to the Book Awards Reading Challenge blog, where you will find the rules, the lists of award winning titles and the lists of the contributors. I look forward to lots of good reading this year.

I compiled my list from books I already own, mostly. Here is my tentative list, in no particular order:

1. Beloved by Toni Morrison-Pulitzer
2. To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee-Pulitzer
3. The Old Man and the Sea by Ernest Hemingway-Pulitzer
4. The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck-Pulitzer
5. The Yearling by Marjorie Kinnar Rawlings-Pulitzer
6. Gone with the Wind by Margaret Mitchell-Pulitzer
7. The Good Earth by Pearl S. Buck-Pulitzer
8. The Bridge of San Luis Rey by Thornton Wilder-Pulitzer
9. The Age of Innocence by Edith Wharton-Pulitzer
10. The English Patient by Michael Ondaatje-Booker
11. The Remains of the Day by Kazuo Ishiguro-Booker
12. The Complete Stories by Flannery O'Connor-National
13. Beowulf by Seamus Heaney-Costa/Whitbread
14. On Beauty by Zadie Smith-Orange
15. Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell by Susanna Clarke-Hugo

Plus the Newbery Challenge books I have yet to read:

1. Shen of the Sea by Arthur Bowie Crisman
2. Adam of the Road by Elizabeth Janet Gray
3. The Door in the Wall by Marguerite de Angeli
4. The Bronze Bow by Elizabeth George Speare

I'd say I have my work cut out for me as I am also reading through the poetry list from The Well-Educated Mind and I am attempting to read ahead of the kiddos for next years school year. I'd better get started.

#480 O Jesus, I Have Promised

O Jesus, I have promised to serve Thee to the end;
Be Thou forever near me, my Master and my Friend;
I shall not fear the battle if Thou art by my side,
Nor wander from the pathway if Thou wilt be my Guide.

O Jesus, Thou hast promised to all who follow Thee,
That where Thou art in glory there shall Thy servant be;
And, Jesus, I have promised to serve Thee to the end;
O give me grace to follow my Master and my Friend!

O let me feel Thee near me! The world is ever near;
I see the sights that dazzle, the tempting sounds I hear;
My foes are ever near me, around me and within;
But, Jesus, draw Thou nearer and shield my soul from sin.

O let me hear Thee speaking in accents clear and still,
Above the storms of passion, the murmurs of self-will.
O speak to reassure me, to hasten or control!
O speak and make me listen, Thou Guardian of my soul!

-from the Psalter Hymnal of the Christian Reformed Church

Summer Reading for Kids

If you have a child in 1st-6th grade, they can participate in the Summer Reading Program at B&N. Just go here to get the details and print the reading log.


One of my favorite online sources of kids books is the 1000 Good Books List. Here's how they came up with their choices:

The criteria we used to judge inclusion are: Does the book have literary value? Does the book re-emphasize a Biblical worldview or the Judeo-Christian heritage in some way? Does the book teach, through whatever means, what is moral or just or true? Does the book encourage to love and good works? Does the book exemplify warmth, tenderness, courage, humor, and other values and characteristics that we desire our children to be exposed to? Does the book nourish the intellect and fire the imagination? Does the book cross age barriers to be enjoyed by all?

Another great source of titles for your kids this summer are the Newbery Medal Winners. Or there is the same list but this one includes the honor books as well. Not all winners are for every family so use caution and preread anything you are unfamiliar with.

That should give your children more reading material than they could read in years. But just in case you don't think there are enough titles try the School of Abraham's list of reading lists. If you're a list lover as well as a book lover then you'll be in heaven.