Read 100 Books -- 10 BIOGRAPHY

COMPLETE (and this is not counting the many excellent biographies I've read which are written for children during this 101 in 1001 Challenge).

How Georgia Became O'Keeffe: Lessons on the Art of Living by Karen Karbo
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Whoever thought that reading a biography could be such PuredeeLight?!! Okay, for those of us with Insatiable Curiosity (bordering on the Kipling 'Elephant's Child' kind), ALL biographies portend to be entertaining in some way. I'm dubbing Karbo the 'Dave Barry' of biography and now am scrambling to find all of her books,or at the very least, all her "kick-ass women" trilogy (as she calls them) to devour (metaphorically speaking, of course).

I confess, I'm one of those who savors EVERY aspect of a book. Silly, but I love the SIZE of this book (7.6 x 5.6), the weight of the paper, the fonts used, the use of colored type indicating the chapter segments, the full color images of one of Okeeffe's works at the beginning of each chapter (how to choose from the 2,045 of her lifetime output?), and all the delightful footnotes (many of which were no more than parenthetical remarks). Reading this book was akin to having a chat over lunch with the author, at once exploring and celebrating a most remarkable life and musing about our own lives and choices. Delectable.

Having said all that, I'm not sure that this book would strike the same chord with other women I know and respect. There is the occasional descriptively-used expletive, which neatly drives home the author's observations. It's a quick read about a voluminous life. The book is more of a 'whet-the-appetite' than a 'full-course-dinner' about the subject of the work. There is plenty written about Georgia O'Keeffe and Karbo includes this link to a full bibliography: www.okeeffemuseum.org . In addition, she shares her personal favorites in her Acknowledgments.

God's Smuggler by Brother Andrew
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

There is so much to learn of faith in this account of one man's commitment to his faith in Jesus Christ. (hence my rare 5-star rating)
I listened to the audio edition while commuting to and from work but now feel I actually owned a very tattered copy of this book years ago and gave it to my husband to read.  He is a voracious reader and liked it very much.  I wish I'd read it with him so we could have talked about it together.

The Snow Queen's Daughter: My Life with Aspergers, a Tale from the Lost Generation by Charli Devnet
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

A gifted and articulate writer, Devnet's account of her life as an undiagnosed "aspie" reads like fiction.

Her chapters are titled: 1-The Snow Queen's Daughter, A True Story, 2-Morning of a Misfit, 3-The Kingdom of Frost, 4-Lost Girl at College, 5-The Toy Garden, 6-Imaginary Lovers, 7-Julio, 8-World of Strangers, 8-Fire Bicycle, 9-The Sorcerer's Apprentice, and 10-Redemption of an Outcast

Anyone with an interest in "Aspberger's Syndrome" may find something of interest in her story. Yet it is engaging enough for any and all to read. It is full of the stuff of families, choices, triumphs, confusion, mistakes, pain, and hope. Just about anyone is going to interact with an "aspie" -- as teacher, boss, co-worker, neighbor, client, etc. The author's purpose in her often painful disclosures is to offer help in self-understanding as well as help in living in a world peopled with others whose brains are simply wired differently than "neuro-typicals".

A few sample passages:

p.76 (her thoughts about corporate employment)...
"My entire life would be like high school without the possibility of parole. Here you would not graduate in a few years. You would be trapped in this ice palace until you turned sixty five and, to my adolescent eyes, ready for either a nursing home or the graveyard. College was seen as the prerequisite to such a career.
Perhaps that is why I entered into it with such a bad attitude.
I wonder how someone as well read as I could have been so blind. People work in zoos, on ranches, in theatres, on boats, in small boutiques. Some have jobs in historic house museums as I do today. Others become wedding photograpers or D.J.s and spend their life attending parties even if they do not have friends to invite them. A little guidance might have spared me from wasting what should have been my most productive years vainly trying to hammer a square peg into a round hole. It would have been better to search for a square hole."

p.78 (thoughts prompted from attending law school)...
"If a brilliant legal mind was all that was needed for success in law; I would be sitting on the Supreme Court right now rather than scratching out a living from several part-time jobs. Unfortunately, there is also a certain decorum which is expected of lawyers as there is in all professions. One needs the skill to maneuver through the 'old-boy's network' that is the legal community and a successful attorney must act the part. After all, it serves one not at all to write the most scintillating well-reasoned brief since Oliver Wendell Holmes, if you alienate judge and jury by acting too eccentric."

p.80 (more thoughts prompted from attending law school)...
Law school was an actual challenge. It was then I realized that school was not just a place to be warehoused when you were too young for the real world or otherwise unfit. You could actually get an education there. Memorizing names, dates, places and facts always came too easy for me, but now a little extra was required of me."

p.80 (a sample thought from attending law school tossed in)...
"A recent Supreme Court appointee was asked by a senator that, if the federal government could require one to purchase health insurance under the Commerce Clause, could it also force us to buy broccoli? Those sorts of questions are discussed in law school, and some heavy-duty thinking is necessary to come up with a logical answer."

p.91 (on the brink of suicide she approaches a priest for counsel and guidance and his indifference could have been catastrophic)...
"Understand, this was a bad priest, far worse than the priests who molested the little altar boys. God can bestow His grace upon sinners and turn them into saints, but a bucket of luke-warm water goes down the drain. As any true Christian knows, the most deadly sin of all is indifference. It's called 'sloth'. "Sloth' means more than laziness; it means failure to act when actions are called for. Had I indeed walked out into the sea, as I was very close to doing, my death would hav been upon his head."

A Place to Stand by Jimmy Santiago Baca
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

From the prologue the reader knows that the story of Jimmy Baca will not be a happy one, yet there is a hint of hope and purpose. From the first sentence you are drawn into Jimmy's world...

"I was five years old the first time I ever set foot in prison."

Ultimately he tells a story of redemption, but first you journey with him and his people a veritable "trail of tears" -- pain, injustice, abuse, , passion, mercy, betrayal, friendship. Like Gandhi, Mandela, and Malamud's "Fixer", Baca's choices set him apart and demanded attention. His is another testament to the power of literature to heal and re-direct lives. No doubt he was born with the poet's heart, mind, and perception -- but words were the only way to manifest them.

This autobiographical work includes some of his poems, which are powerfully evocative. He never got to attend "GED" classes -- a privilege which was withheld from him. He was virtually illiterate as a twenty-year-old. He laboriously self-taught himself to read and write. It is remarkable that quality literature fell into his hands. He became better read than most youth who graduate from high school and college today.

I recommend this book to any and all. It is full of heart. It would never have crossed my radar were it not for a book-group.

Excerpts follow:

At the tender age of seven he was put in the care of nuns at a boy's home and by his teens he was a detention center resident. He shares..."It was at the detention center that I first came in contact with boys who were already well on their way to becoming criminals; whose friendship taught me I was more like them than like the boys outside the cells, living in a society that would never accept me, in a world made of parents, nice clothes, and loving care. You could see the narrowing of life's possibilities in the cold, challenging eyes of the homeboys in the detention center; you could see the numbing of their hearts in their swaggering postures. All of them had been wounded, hurt, abused, ignored; already, aggression was in their talk, in the way they let off steam over their disappointments, in the way they expressed themselves. It was all they allowed themselves to express, for each of them knew they could be hurt again if they tried anything different. So instead they refined what they did know to its own kind of perfection." page 32

Much later (page 152) he shares..."Had I been able to share my feelings that moment, I would have said what I was able to add years later, lying on my cot in an isolation cell in total darkness. I would have said I felt the many lives that had come before me, the wind carrying within the vast space of the range, and all that lived in the range--cows, grass, insects-but something deeper. Old women leaving their windows open so the breeze can pass through the rooms, blessing the walls, chasing away evil spirits, anointing floors, beds, and clothing with its tepid hand. The breeze excites larks to jackknife over the park pond, knocks on doors to ask people to remember their ancestors, peels paint off trucks and scrapes rust from windmill blades and withers young shoots of alfalfa, cleans what it touches and brings age and emptiness to dirt roads. This breeze blows on my brow sometimes when I'm on the prairie, and I feel immortal; it whispers, Better times will come, and I believe my dreams will come true. The breeze chases the young heels of children and pulls at little girls' ponytails, draws red happiness out from their hearts and pools it in their cold cheeks, scruffs youth up, tugs at old women's long-sleeved bereavement dresses, sweeps away veils and handkerchiefs and dries their tears. It roars up from canyons, whistles from caves, blows fountains of green leaves across the air, loosens shale from cliffs, tears cottonwood pods, and bursts them to release fluffy cotton that sails past puffs of chimney smoke."

Later he observes (page 239)..."Language was opening me up in ways I couldn't explain and I assumed it was part of the apprenticeship of a poet. I culled poetry from odors, sounds, faces, and ordinary events occurring around me. Breezes bulged me as if I were cloth; sounds nicked their marks on my nerves; objects made impressions on my sight as if in clay. There, in the soft lightning of language, life entered and ground itself in me and I was flowing with the grain of the universe. Language placed my life experiences in a new context, freeing me for the moment to become with air as air, with clouds as clouds, from which new associations arose to engage me in present life in a more purposeful way."

On page 243..."After packing, I waited on my bunk, thinking of my cell as a womb from which I was repeatedly born into a person with greater and deeper convictions. I reflected on the challenges in understanding certain poets, on how I loved Neruda's work more and more, and Whitman's expansive celebrations of the common person. Russian writers wrote under oppression and gave me hope. My cell was my monastic refuge. Instead of closing in on me, shutting me off from life, and cannibalizing me, my cell was the place where I experienced the most abject grief, in which I yearned to the point of screaming for physical freedom. Through the barred cell window I saw lightning and thunder and rain and wind and sun and stars and moon that mercifully offered me reprieve from my loneliness. There I dreamed and kept intact my desires for live and family and freedom."

On page 244..."In this cell, meditative hours spent in solitary writing and reading broke old molds, leaving me distraught and empty and forcing me further out on the edge for answers to my questions and pain. Psychic wounds don't come in the form of knives, blades, guns, clubs; they arrive in the form of boxes--boxes in trucks, under beds, in my apartment when I could no longer pay the rent and had to move. Still, I was comforted by the thought that I was bigger than my box. I was what mattered, not the box. I lived OUT of a box, not in one. I was a witness, not a victim. I was a witness for those who for one reason or another would never have a place of their own, would never have the opportunity to make their lives stable enough because resources weren't available or because they just could not get it together. My job was to witness and record the "it" of their lives, to celebrate those who don't have a place in this world to stand and call home. For those p eople, my journals, poems, and writings are home. My pen and heart chronicle their hopes, doubts, regrets, loves, despairs, and dreams. I do this partly out of selfishness, because it helps to heal my own impermanence, my own despair. My role as witness is to give voice to the voiceless and hope to the hopeless, of which I am one."

Running for My Life: One Lost Boy's Journey from the Killing Fields of Sudan to the Olympic Games by Lopez Lomong
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I was hooked from the first sentence.

Lopepe Lopez Lomong tells his story of being torn from his mother's arms at age 6 by Sudanese rebel soldiers and taken to their camp where he surely would have perished if three teenage captives had not carried him to freedom in a daring nighttime escape. The four of them ran for their lives for three days, only to encounter soldiers at the border of Kenya who took them to a refugee camp.

Lopepe tells how he survived the camp and more, so much more. What is remarkable about him and his story is his faith and optimism. He entertains and inspires. For me this was a ten-hankie book -- but the tears I shed were because he grew my heart several sizes. In a word, he is indefatigable.

He rose above insurmountable odds, even carrying the U.S. flag in the 2008 Olympics in Beijing, China. Everything he does is for others -- to make a difference.

http://www.lopezlomong.com/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lopez_Lo...
https://www.facebook.com/LopezLomong
http://edition.cnn.com/2012/08/06/spo...
http://edition.cnn.com/2012/08/06/spo...

This book is so good that my daughter wouldn't give it back to me so I could finish it until she had finished it. :)

Dune Child by Ella Thorp Ellis
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Ellis pens a fascinating first person account of growing up in an artist colony during the Great Depression of the 1930's.


Garlic and Sapphires by Ruth Reichl
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Ruth's account of being the restaurant reviewer for the New York Times is engaging from the very first sentence. Anyone who loves food is going to love this book. I mean, she has the gift for describing food in such a way that you want to stampede to said place and order a plate.

The challenge she has is being able to give a review of a place where she is recognized instantly and all stops are pulled to give her the best possible service and servings. Her solution? She goes in disguise.

Much of the fun of the story is hearing about the different personas she creates and how she becomes them. You enjoy all the 'supporting cast' as well.

I've never been to New York. I will probably never dine at any of these places. I am not daring in my menu choices. But I can experience this all vicariously through her account.

The Waiting: The True Story of a Lost Child, a Lifetime of Longing, and a Miracle for a Mother Who Never Gave Up by Cathy LaGrow
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Anyone who has or who knows someone who has given up a baby to adoption or who has adopted a child is sure to be deeply moved by Minka's story. This is a story filled with faith, forgiveness, love, perseverance, charity, determination and most of all hope.

Minka, whose story it is, was raised by her Dutch mother and German step-father. My mother, too, was raised by a Dutch mother. Reading of her upbringing elicited from me many "aha!" moments as light was shed on how affection was or was not shared in such households.

I would love to create such a personal history of my own mother's life journey. There were many times I thought I could juxtapose my mother's account into this one--certainly not Minka's details, but the time period covered very nearly mirrors my mother's.

The Color of Water: A Black Man's Tribute to His White Mother by James McBride
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

In alternating chapters the reader/listener steps into the shoes of the eighth of twelve children and his mother.

She was the daughter of Jewish parents, raised in the south, unhappy and abused and overworked and ostrasized by her peers. Her story takes her to New York and Christianity and marriage to a remarkable man who happened also to be black. He rescued her from a downward spiral which would have ended in prostitution.

The son's story was one of confusion, searching for identity, piecing together the awakening of black pride and righting of generational wrongs.

The title is the mother's description of God. All her children received university degrees, her husband established a congregation, and she overcame the loss of two husbands.

The book is filled with understanding and hope and struggle and ultimately peace. Well worth the time spent in reading or listening.


HAPPY TRAILS: Our Life Story by Roy Rogers
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This iconic couple have now nearly faded completely out of memory, while in their heyday they were public favorites and even rated hero status -- right up there with Abe Lincoln and FDR.

I gained a great appreciation for both of them, especially Roy Rogers, as I read their life stories (shared in his, hers, and ours alternating chapters). It is good for someone like me who has grown up in comfort and privilege to see the price paid by the generation or two before me.

For instance, Roy's mother had polio (it was then called the "white Swelling") at the age of two and was crippled for life. She had to bend down and hold her weak leg tight around the knee for support. And yet she married and raised four children. Roy's father's brother was blind and yet he helped build a make-shift boat to transport him and Roy's family by river to carve out a life in Portsmouth, Ohio. Later the family was among the many to load all their belongings into their rickety vehicle and go to California. They found little work and much hardship there but the weather was better.

Dale Evans, who became Roy's wife, began life in Texas and became a mother herself at the tender age of 15.

Both Dale and Roy worked their way into stardom and that alone makes for a fascinating story of the studios of the day. However, as a couple they chose to adopt children and also chose to bring their own Downs Syndrome baby home rather than institutionalize her as was the practice of the day. Their story is truly inspirational. They took their roles as heroes to young people to heart and behaved both on and off set with their young enthusiasts in mind.

Read 100 books -- 10 I OWN

The White Robin by Miss Read
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

Despite my love of Miss Read's prose and her delightful line-drawing illustrations I feel let down with this little volume in which a teacher and class 'discover' and observe, even protect the comings and goings of an albino robin through the course of a year.

At peril of 'spoilers' I will restrain more description, other than to say that overall I didn't perceive a change in any of the characters.

I had picked this up at a library book sale years ago and finally read it.   However, this one I found not to be a keeper.  I returned it to another library book sale.

Tuesdays at the Castle by Jessica Day George
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

What fun!
A Castle that takes charge. Really.
Royal siblings (delightfully named).
A tragic change in the course of events.
A malicious plot.
Who to trust? Who not to trust? What to do?
Teamwork, courage, ingenuity.
It's all here! And so cleverly executed.

I bought this at a library event -- the author was the speaker and she told her "road to getting published" story.  My copy is autographed and is a "keeper".

Contact Lost by Leif Hamre
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

A routine helicopter mission over the ice fields of Greenland goes dangerously off course. Even worse, there are now two extra lives at stake, in addition to the pilot's and the mechanic's.

Written before the YA genre found its footing, this story would still appeal to this group. I gave it to my husband to read the minute I put it down. It would be a great read-aloud for even upper elementary and middle school / jr. high age listeners. It would be nice if this were re-printed.

For some reason I thought this book which I'd plucked from a library book sale table years ago had a Christmas theme. So all these years I've packed it away with Christmas, unread. This year I decided to actually READ some of these books. Even though it turns out to not have anything to do with Christmas I'm glad to have read it.

I no longer own it, as I gave it to a family at my church who was visiting from Norway.

The Good Shepherd by Gunnar Gunnarsson
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Every year for 27 years Benedikt has spent the week of Advent in the wilds of Iceland seeking out stray sheep with his trusty dog and bell-wether ram. This particular journey takes place the year that half his life has been devoted to this little service he renders, unbidden, to these lost sheep. He is delayed in his purpose by a man who has carelessly postponed his own sheep gathering til this time, knowing that Benedikt would come to his aid. Other obstacles present themselves and there are times that the outcome of this journey is on tenter-hooks.

This book has been packed away with my Christmas things year after year, unread. Finally this year it rose to the top and I find it is not a holiday story so much as a tale of personal mission. Benedikt again and again is faced with the choice--"stay with my purpose" or "render assistance where it is needed", all the while knowing that the innocent creatures he seeks may forfeit their lives due to these delays. Then too, Benedikt wonders if there will be one to pick up the baton, as it were, when he must needs lay it by.

This is a short book but would be a good family read-aloud, especially at the time of year in which it takes place.

The author was nominated for the Nobel prize in literature during his years of writing.

I no longer own this book because I gave it to a family visiting from Norway.

Read 100 books -- RE-READ 10 Books I've read before

A Barrel of Laughs, a Vale of Tears by Jules Feiffer
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Of the seven basic plots from which all stories are supposedly drawn (as I once heard said), I would say this one most closely follows the Sleeping Beauty epic. Although our hero, Prince Roger, is not given a fairy gift he IS born with a tragic flaw in a world where it seems all have a handicap to bear. His flaw? He was absolutely good-natured -- to the point that all in his presence were subject to fits of laughter. This simply would not do, so his father, King Whatchamacallit, consults J. Wellington Wizard for help. He prescribes a quest in which Roger must traverse the Forever Forest, the Dastardly Divide, the Valley of Vengeance, and assorted other hazardous places to do who knows what for who knows who.

Absolutely NOTHING goes according to plan.

There is plenty here to entertain -- humor, adventure, asides-to-the-reader, cartoonish illustrations, bad guys, good guys, and surprises aplenty. In fact, you may want to own a copy of your own (as I do).

For the mature reader there is ample food for thought. I found myself thinking about the many opposites that life deals and how they can all mesh together for good or for ill, depending on our choices and actions.

I could have put this either in the BOOKS I OWN post or this one.  I have owned this one for years and my children all love it.  I read it aloud to them years ago.  One of my children memorized a few pages to fulfill  a "monologue" school drama class assignment.

The Trail Of The Lonesome Pine by John Fox Jr.
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This Cinderalla / Romeo & Juliet epic, set in Appalachia at the turn of the last century, is more than a winter/summer love story but is a love story of place as well. It is an exploration of human nature, the impact of environment on conduct, the power of education over ignorance, and even the dawn of the 'rule of law'.

I read this edition while summering at my grandfather's place so many years ago that there was really not much else to do than read and this was at hand. As a teenager I could wander about his little two acres which included two orchards, plenty of garden, raspberries, hollyhocks, lots of lawn, a chicken house, a barn, cows, pigs, rabbits in hutches, a clothesline, an outdoor privy, a wood-burning stove for cooking, no running water in the house, a little store within walking distance, trees to climb and hide in, irrigation ditches. It was a simple matter to throw myself into reading in the cool of the house when the fascination of board games with cousins wore off and my only company was younger sisters who held no interest for me. I loved this book.

And now, after all these years I've read it again. I don't love stories now as I did then. But I can appreciate the panoramic proportions more. My own grandmother was 14 years younger than my grandfather and reading this gives me a glimpse of how their romance may have unfolded over the years. Our society has ridden the rail of industrialization (industrial EVERYTHING -- education, medicine, farming, etc) and is hearkening back to the roots of simpler times. Full circle.

I could have put this one in the BOOKS I OWN category as I actually own two copies.

The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

So glad to have had a reason to re-visit this by reading it aloud to my teen to fulfill an English assignment. Having said that, I can see why there is some controversy about it in today's politically correct conversation mode. I think people don't comprehend how the author was pricking the conscience of his contemporaries -- asking the hard but obvious questions and doing so in such a way that the whole English-speaking world came on board that little raft-world with Huck and Jim. It is refreshing to me to read a book where the characters speak and behave just as they would have in their particular time and place.

Twain certainly loved poking fun at the classics of his time, as evidenced by the exasperating way in which Jim was liberated by two well-meaning boys. I finally fell into the spirit of the story and found myself laughing so hard I could barely get through a paragraph, there towards the end.

Huck's journey can be mapped into the "Storymind" hero's journey, as presented by Tracy and Laura Hickman at an event I once attended. However, I leave that exercise for another day.

On a side note, I found Jim's observations on Solomon and the baby claimed by two mothers to be foot stomping funny.  I could hardly get through it, I was laughing so hard.

The Adventures of Perrine by Hector Malot
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

This is one of the treasures I found on my grandfather's bookshelves during one of the many idle summer days I spent there as a teenager. I absolutely LOVED this book and even wrote to Disney that it needed to be made into a movie.

I finally subscribed to my library's inter-library loan service for a copy to read to my teenage daughter. Reading it together we felt it was a mash-up of Hugo's "Les Miserables", Dicken's "Oliver Twist", Burnett's "Little Lord Fauntleroy", and even Twain's "Huckleberry Finn".

Juxtaposed over the many well-written novels I have read in the ensuing years and am now a more sophisticated reader it did not earn the five stars I would have given it when I first read it. However, a quick look at Amazon revealed that this 1932 novel by French author Malot is collectible, anywhere from $33 for a paperback reprint up to $2400 for a first edition!

As the story opens Perrine and her mother approach the city of Paris in their little dilapidated "van" pulled by a beloved pet donkey. They are very low on funds and their traveling photography business can no longer earn them revenue as they have no paper or chemicals. The mother is very ill. The reader distrusts all who advise them, suspecting them easy prey for predatory people. The worst happens--the mother dies, leaving young 10,11,or 12-year old Perrine only her parent's marriage certificate, a map, and the little money left over from the sale of the van and the donkey. Her last wish is that Perrine proceed north to the village of her dead father's family.

This Perrine does at great peril, experiencing abuse and hardship along the way but ever staying true to her character and her objective. Perrine also receives kindness and friendship. Perrine's ingenuity and independent spirit are indefatigable. Through her eyes the reader learns of social injustices of the time and tangles with unscrupulous business practices.

Happy tears were shed as we completed the story.

Alas, Babylon by Pat Frank
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Frank's sobering "alternate history" exploring the possible aftermath of a nuclear holocaust has become a classic of its genre. It predates the film "Fail-safe" and its satire "Dr. Strangelove". It predates the Cuban Missile Crisis.

Randy Bragg, thirty-something, unmarried and unemployed is idling away his life in Fort Repose, the Florida back-water community where he grew up. His brother, a high ranking Air Force officer, informs Randy that he is sending his wife and children "home" in hopes that there they might survive an impending Soviet nuclear attack.

The story, lyrically written and presented without sentimentality, explores how an individual, a neighborhood, a community, and the nation might respond to such an adverse reality.

I gave this four stars because it changed my life. I read it as a teenager and selected my career based on this story. I can recommend the audio edition which is superbly performed.

After perusing a few of the reader reviews I feel compelled to add that the character Randy Bragg was politically forward-looking. At the time this book was written the Civil Rights Movement (as it came to be known) was in its infancy. Randy lost a local election because he was in favor of integration. Their "negro" (the term in use at the time this book was written) neighbors were actually MORE prepared to face the challenges imposed upon them because they had not yet become dependent upon all the modern innovations. They became key players in the survival of the neighborhood and community. The author recognized the wide schism of education and political acumen among various members of any community.

Randy was a flawed character and that is part of what makes his journey pertinent to any reader. Through Randy the author exposes and challenges the stereotypes and deeply held prejudices of that time and place. The re-shaping of Fort Repose's society received a jump-start as a result of the nuclear devastation. So, in a way, Frank was asking, "Why wait for disaster to make positive changes?" As in Harper Lee's "To Kill a Mockingbird" author Pat Frank was holding a looking glass up to each reader for some crucial self-examination. People of all races, creeds, and genders deserve our respect. Through his characters he invited the reader to ask, at the end of the day where do I put my faith? In what do I trust? When there are no rules how do I behave? How resilient, creative, charitable am I.

Mastering the Seven Decisions That Determine Personal Success: An Owner's Manual to the New York Times Bestseller, the Traveler's Gift by Andy Andrews
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

After listening to Andrews' book Mastering the Seven Decisions That Determine Personal Success I am hooked on this author. In fact, this became a "MUST OWN THIS"! for me and I gave them as gifts at Christmas to everyone in my family. Very inspiring!

Just listened to this a second time in twice as many years. I'm thinking a once-a-month, or perhaps once a quarter and certainly at least once a year would be a good prescription for me. He includes affirmations with each category.
The Responsible Decision
The Guided (informed) Decision
The Active Decision
and so forth...

post script -- I posted this review Nov. 2009 and just re-listened to in June 2015. My how time does fly. And yes, I need to now get my hands on the book and do the suggested writing exercises.

Angel Unaware: A Touching Story of Love and Loss by Dale Evans Rogers
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This is a first-person narrative from the child's point of view but as told by the mother as she imagines it what it was like as her almost two-year old daughter reported to a Heavenly Father the impact her short time on earth had on the lives of others.

Her life actually did impact many lives -- first of all her parents, the famous Roy Rogers and Dale Evans, who chose to take their downs syndrome baby home and love her rather than institutionalize her right away as they were advised.

Due to their fame, they were able by their example to help other parents not be ashamed of their special needs children. The proceeds from this book went to helping the cause of handicapped children. Who can say how much this couple and this child did to change the way these children were thought of and treated.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eX2j_...

Read 100 books -- 10 FLUFF

COMPLETE (and this isn't counting any "Young Adult" novels I've read or "Children's" novels I've read.)

Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell by Susanna Clarke
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Oh my. If you hanker for the stuff of Faerie and magic this volume is a must read. I remember it being made much of on NPR when it was first published and has been on my "to read" list ever since (some 10 years, I regret to say). I finally launched into the audio edition (which is wonderfully performed). This reads more like a documentary (complete with a plethora of footnotes) along the lines of "The Immortal Life of Henrietta Laks" by Rebecca Skloot (which is indeed documentary in the real sense). In other words, informative while at the same time unfolding a fascinating story.

Set in a parallel world so like ours that it could almost be mistaken as England during and following the Napoleonic wars, you will be caught up in the turmoil that dealing in magic can create. You will come to know the magicians named in the title and others besides. You will form opinions about Lady Pole, the Man with the Thistle-down hair, Stephen Black and others.

Woot!woot! A BBC mini-series is announced! Plus new-line cinema may someday make a film. Can't wait!!!!

I began reading this years ago, so to have read it now has gotten it off my "want to read" list, finally!

More Things In Heaven and Earth by Jeff High
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Luke, freshly graduated from medical school, accepts a position in a remote Tennessee community although he would prefer to immerse himself in research. This likable young man gets off on the wrong foot, committing a series of laughable blunders. Matters become increasingly serious as he become immersed in his work and new relationships.

On one hand the story reminded me of "It's a Wonderful Life", showing the impact we have on the lives of those around us. On the other hand it reminded me of the Miss Read novels about Thrush Green.

There is a short book discussion guide included and a teaser from the next Watervalley story. I could picture this as a movie or a television series. Lots of material potential.

The Dead in Their Vaulted Arches by Alan Bradley
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This sixth Flavia installment is entirely different in texture and tone than the preceding five murder mysteries. In this story Flavia examines the inner landscape of herself and her family as they come to terms, each in their own way, with a terrible loss.

This story moved much slower for me than the others, which was okay because I enjoy Flavia any way she is served up. There were fewer cultural references in this story. Instead there was a surprising turn to the world outside Buckshaw. Will stories about precocious Flavia continue beyond her twelfth birthday? The author has nudged open yet another door. Hooray!

I highly recommend the audio versions of these books. The reader, Jayne Entwistle, is superb.

Inferno by Dan Brown
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Oh my. Dan Brown takes on over-population in this fourth "Robert Langdon" installment which s t r u g g l e s with novel-meets-travel log-meets-college lecture. This will definitely be improved in film format.

On the flip side of Brown's coin is this argument (can be viewed in this hour-long video link): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lZeyY...


First Love and Forever by Anita Stansfield
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Our heroine, Emily, is a devout "Mormon" and having made all her choices for the 'right' reasons finds herself miserable in a loveless marriage. It seems everything has gone wrong -- she married a 'returned missionary' who she dated in high school when he was a handsome charismatic football star, having refused a proposal from a college boyfriend who was not a member of her church. Now her husband is 'inactive' in the church, works long hours, is distant from her and their children, and scrutinizes her spending with a magnifying glass. She tries to be the perfect housewife and has encouraged them to avail themselves of counseling to no affect.

Now after a chance meeting with her college boyfriend who is now a successful author Emily finds herself tempted to leave her husband. Again she aligns her choices with her faith and... the plot thickens.

This heavy/light story is romance candy for the "LDS" audience.

The Dead Fathers Club by Matt Haig
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Somehow this title crossed my radar and for some reason I gave it a go and have to say I'm glad. Matt Haig has a wonderful writer's voice.

The story is a middle-grade boy's experience with losing his father to a tragic accident, being socially side-lined at school, and adjusting to his mother's recovery journey.

There are plenty of connections to Shakespeare's HAMLET...
His ghost father wants him to avenge his death by murdering his uncle who caused the accident (says Dead Dad) and it must be done before Dead Dad's birthday or he will suffer The Terrors for Eternity. And so forth (lest I give way to "spoilers").

In a way this story is similar to the Flavia de Luce novels by C. Alan Bradley (which I love).

There is some "language" but it doesn't detract from the story at all.

Wild Designs by Katie Fforde
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

From this first sentence: 'Mum,' said a voice, reproachful yet forgiving. 'Have you been drinking orange juice straight out of the carton again?' I knew this was going to be a fun read.

Althea is middle aged and a little overweight, has three teenage children, is a single divorced mother, and is about to lose her job. She is very likable and tries to make the best of things. She's cheerful but not perfect. There are some hilarious encounters and a whole lot of misunderstandings.

About half-way through the book I figured out this was a PRIDE AND PREJUDICE for middle-age women. Two thirds of the way through the book the big "Darcy" kiss replete with bells and whistles happens. But tension keeps building right up to the very end.

Here are some random notes I made... (mostly vocabulary to look up, but also places to google)
p.5 Cotswold hills Severn Vale
p.68 'grasp the nettle' (a phrase my dad shared with me)
p.83 recherche`
p.113 propinquity
p.117 Whinging Pommish
p.193 voluptuary
p.208 asperity
p.222 maquillage
p.245 Tyrolean
and then it occurred to me to jot down British'isms with my best guess as the the American counter-part
poppers=snaps
tip=dump
removal people=movers
portakabin=storage unit
Oz=Australia
offload=dump
Ta=thanks
knackered=worn out or bushed
navvy=sailor
pushchairs=strollers
cashpoint machine=ATM
petrol=gas
indicated=signaled
bugger= ???

The Dress Shop of Dreams by Menna van Praag
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Charming. Take eight persons with various forms of not fully engaging with life for various reasons, or not, and wake them up (so to speak) and watch them bumble their way through assumptions that nearly throw their lives completely off course and end with a Shakespearean comedy finale`. Voila`! The Dress Shop of Dreams. P.S. I want one of those dresses!

More about the author, etc. here: http://www.mennavanpraag.com/

post script: there are three unnecessary "f-bombs" towards the end of the book. Really too bad as this prevents me from whole-heartedly recommending this to friends.

Thank You, Jeeves by P.G. Wodehouse
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I had no idea that the Jeeves novels were every bit as fun as the television episodes -- and even more so! Rollicking fun from start to finish.

Delicious! by Ruth Reichl
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Deliciously Delightful!

A dream job as a writer at a cooking magazine, an almost supernatural palate, the New York City food scene, a historical mansion with secrets, a mystery, romance, all wrapped up in a Cinderella package -- what's not to like here?

All loose ends are neatly tied up at the end AND you finally get that recipe that is featured in the book's first chapter. Can't wait to try it.

Read 100 books -- 10 POLITICAL / GLOBAL

One Nation: What We Can All Do to Save America's Future by Ben Carson
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

In less than 300 pages (or just 5 audio discs) Carson pings on a grocery list of pet peeves and at the end of each section offers four "action" suggestions. I liked EVERYTHING he said and am thinking I want to own this book and give a case full away as Christmas gifts.



A Thousand Pieces of Gold: Growing Up Through China's Proverbs by Adeline Yen Mah
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

The library houses this volume in the "folk literature, fairy tales, and proverbs" section, which somehow piqued my curiosity. I would say it falls more into either autobiography or history of China, but had it been in either of those places I would never have picked it up. The author is best known for her two autobiographical works FALLING LEAVES and CHINESE CINDERELLA.

I found her personal applications of the proverbs her grandfather taught her which spring from the time of the 1st Emperor and the wars following his death to be fascinating. I especially appreciate learning that to know a country and its people one must have an understanding of its proverbs or sayings. It is the "salt in the stew" -- invisible to the untrained eye or palate, but seasoning all.

The time of the 1st Emperor approximates the time of the Roman Empire. It was a period of massive construction--the Great Wall of China and many roads and canals. There was also great violence done to the people.

The author shows many parallels to this emperor and Mao Tse Tung. Her account is drawn from an ancient book of Chinese history she calls SHIJI, which was written at great sacrifice to its author.

I feel it imperative that we in the West be more cognizant of the ways of the East and this little volume makes this more possible.

Peace Child: An Unforgettable Story of Primitive Jungle Treachery in the 20th Century by Don Richardson
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I was fascinated by this account of the Sawi people of New Guinea and the missionary couple who went to live with them in the early 1960's. As the author says -- the 20th century is going to encroach upon indigenous people sooner or later. It's a question of, will it be "givers" or "takers" who reach them first. The missionaries were among the first, in this case. The missionaries learned their language and created a written language for them. The missionaries learned their customs and beliefs and in some cases these paved the path for understanding Christianity and accepting Christ. It was so much better for these people to have been brought into this age in this way than by the laws imposed by the new governments as western society made its way into this jungle.

The audio book is read by Paul Michael, the same voice actor who reads the Dan Brown books.

Read 100 books -- 10 BUSINESS / FINANCIAL

The New Articulate Executive: Look, Act and Sound Like a Leader by Granville Toogood
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

While reading through this I could see so many applications outside of simply being an upwardly mobile cog in the wheel of big business. All of us have any number of big ideas we never flesh out. Using his suggestions to put them into presentation form and then boil them down to 8 second sound bites we could all be more prepared for that time when opportunity may knock. In fact, prior preparation would INVITE that serendipitous knock.

He shares tips for preparing, speaking, powerpoints, dress, protocol, Q&A sessions, and even television appearances and much more. These can be used in the classroom, at interviews, informal gatherings, pageants, and almost any public gathering where you may find yourself in the spotlight.

So glad this somehow came across my radar. So surprised my library elected to borrow it through another library rather than purchase a copy to circulate here. But hey, that forced it to the top of my reading list with a "must read by this due date" push.


I Dare You by William H. Danforth
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Wow. This book crossed my path just as I was launching myself into a higher gear -- to successfully complete a 90-day-Isagenix-challenge. For me that means getting up 6ish, running (even if it's zero degrees), going to the gym to work out, stretching and sit-ups at home, eating more sensibly, and "cleansing" four days a month. On top of all that it's NaNoWriMo time -- so I tackle the keyboard for the third consecutive year pounding out childhood memories in narrative form. This on top of good habits I've already established that make me a happier person.

The copy I have is a "twentieth edition" printed in 1965. The premise is a "four-fold personal development" program addressing the physical, mental, social, and spiritual aspects of one's self.

It's a "read again and again and again and again" sort of book. My first read-through was to get the gist. The next time I'm going to be solidifying my purpose and creating some goals and establishing a tracking system for myself. He mentions lots of people I want to learn more about. I want to read the books he mentions.

I'm considering purchasing copies to give to my children as gifts.

Pushing to the Front or Success Under Difficulties by Orison Swett Marden
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

copyright date: 1911
chapters: 66
pages: 824
content: a crash course in living abundantly.

I made so many notes that I would have to photocopy half the book. I obtained a copy through inter-library loan but fear the volume would not survive the handling that such a feat would require.

Happily it is available to purchase in a freshly minted paperback edition or to download -- which I intend to do in very short order.

Now I'm wondering how on earth this crossed my radar in the first place!

Read 100 books -- 10 PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT

COMPLETED by September 2015

My Country School Diary: An Adventure in Creative Teaching by Julia Weber Gordon
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

On 5 June 1936 Julia Weber begins a diary of her "adventure in creative teaching". The diary covers four years, in which time we get to know 28 to 33 students who range from age 5 to 14 (depending on the year). Ho-hum--another teaching story (you might be thinking). I thought I was going to be able to give this a quick skim. I soon found myself drawn in to the fascinating approach to learning that this woman was implementing. The results this method produced are astounding.

The inspiring aspect of her work is that it is duplicatable -- not the curriculum but the process. When the goal of education is absorbing a "core" curriculum (which is in the limelight at present) this more "democratic" (her word) approach is not feasible. However, if the objective is to raise youth who are able to work together, solve problems, learn HOW to learn, gain better social skills, become more involved in their community, have improved relationships even at home -- well, this model was proved to produce these very beneficial results.

Her postlude shows that this type of learning environment cannot thrive in a vacuum. Even children who have been successful through learning this way for a period as long as four years cannot maintain the process without a teacher who can guide them through it.

Her successor had a promising resume, had the opportunity to work with the author and was assisted in creating a teaching plan. Sadly, in less than a month the new teacher reverted to a more orthodox protocol and it wasn't long before all that was hard won was lost. The author writes, "Children, being immature, need a guide."

Anyone working with children will appreciate the author's journey -- the plans, trials, errors, solicitations for help and input, use of mentors, insights, and narration of her charge's successes. (When I say "successes" I really mean their learning journeys -- and journey is an apt description.)

Here's an example (found on page 44): Dec. 4 These children need to initiate and plan their activities because interest and purpose are essential to wholesome development. Through the Helper's Club and through the conferences the children are already beginning to work and plan with purpose. Today we took another step in this direction. Each morning I have had the plans for the day on the blackboard. We would discuss these plans the first thing. This morning, however, I thought I would have the children plan their own day. We listed orally all the things that need to be done and then we organized them on the blackboard."

I was able to read this book by borrowing it through the inter-library loan service of my library. It came from a state university library. The "date due" slip informs me that it was purchased in late 1951. It was borrowed twice in that year and once a year later. It sat on the shelf for a full seven years. Then it waited another eleven years before it was borrowed again. It waited eighteen years to be borrowed again. It was checked out four times that year (1988), possibly by the same person. Two years later it was borrowed twice. Twenty-three years after that I borrowed it. So, in nearly 60 years it has been borrowed only twelve times! I am amazed it was still there! Most libraries these days do not have the luxury of keeping "shelf sitters".

We, as library users, make a huge impact on what is purchased and what is kept. We need to "be players"!

  A Picture Perfect Childhood by Cay Gibson
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Reading-aloud enthusiasts, moms, teachers, and librarians will love Cay's journey of discovery as she gained a love and appreciation of what picture books could do for her and her family. She then discovered story hours at the library, appreciating how librarians modeled better ways to read aloud.

She shares other people's journeys as well, infusing all with quotes and anecdotes. She has become a hub for getting the word out about what can be done with just 15 minutes of reading aloud every day.

She provides many recommendations for using books with children from pre-school age thru teen years. Study units, cooking, traveling, favorite authors and illustrators, and so forth.

I posted a sample on one of my blogs -- http://www.projectpercy.blogspot.com/

I put both of these books under PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT because one of my life "subjects of inquiry" is "Education" (my undergraduate degree is in Elementary Education) and among my 101 goals is to create curriculum.  It is on my bucket list to do and whether or not it is ever used remains to be seen.

Along these same lines is this book on education.,,
A Montessori Mother by Dorothy Canfield Fisher
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I find anything Montessori to be fascinating. This particular study of Montessori methodology, written by an articulate American who visited a "Casa dei Bambini" or "Children's Home" circa 1912, provides an opportunity for us to observe this phenomena as it was presented in its infancy to a curious public.

The copy I read was obtained through inter-library loan from the Boise State College and conveniently had some read underlined passages throughout. I will share some of these.

p.2 ...but to be responsible to God, to society, and to the soul in question for the health, happiness, moral growth, and usefulness of a human soul, what reflective parent among the whole army of us has not had moments of heartsick terror at the realization of what he has been set to do?

p.17 "The children can come and find me if they need me."

p.30 The freedom accorded them is absolute, the only rule being that they must not hurt or annoy others, a rule which, after the first brief chaos at the beginning, when the school is being organized, is always respected with religious care by these little citizens; although to call a Montessori school a "little republic" and the children "little citizens," gives much too formal an idea of the free-and-easy, happily unforced and natural relations of the children with each other.

p.32 "But what do you do, with all this fine theory of absolute freedom, when a child IS naughty?"... I was told then that the health of such a child is looked into at once, such perverted violence being almost certainly the result of deranged physical condition. If nothing pathological can be discovered, he is treated as a morally sick child, given a little table by himself, from which he can look on at the cheerful, ordered play of the schoolroom, allowed any and all toys he desires, petted, soothed, indulged, pitied, but (of course this is the vital point) severely let alone by the other children, who are told that he is "sick" and so cannot play with them until he gets well. This quiet isolation, with its object-lesson of good-natured play among the other children, has a hypnotically calming effect, the child's "naughtiness" for very lack of food to feed upon, or resistance to blow its flames, disappears and dies away.

p.40 For although the Montessori school furnishes the best possible practical training for democracy, inasmuch as every child learns speedily first the joys of self-dependence and then the self-abnegating pleasure of serving others, it is also preparing the greatest possible amelioration of our present-day democracy, by counteracting that bad, but apparently not inevitable, tendency of democracy to a dead level of uniform and characterless mediocrity. The Casa dei Bambini proves in actual practice that even the best interests of the sacred majority do not demand that powerful and differing individualities be forced into a common mould, but only guided into the higher forms of their own natural activities.

p.40-41 No greater tribute to the broadly human and universal foundation of the system could be presented than this inevitable tendency in visitors to see in the differing childish activities the unchaining of great natural forces for good which have been kept locked and padlocked by our inertia, our short-sightedness, our lack of confidence in human nature, and our deep-rooted and unfounded prejudice about childhood, our instinctive, mistaken, harsh conviction that it will be industrious, law-abiding, and self-controlled only under pressure from the outside.

p.48 I am addressing an audience no more scientific than I am, an audience of ordinary, fairly well educated American parents.

p.49 ... no human being can be educated by anyone else. He must do it himself or it is never done.

p.57 ...up to the age of six, children need to have their vision reinforced by touch if, without great mental fatigue, they are to get an accurate conception of the objects about them.

p.103 She (the Montessori mother) is to remember constantly that the Montessori exercises are neither games to amuse the children (although they do this to perfection), nor ways for the children to acquire information (although this is also accomplished admirably, though not so directly as in the kindergarten work). They are, like all truly educative methods, means to teach the child how to learn.

p.133 How many ...mothers, dressing and undressing, washing and feeding and regulating their children, as though they were little automata, because "it's so much easier to do it for them than to bother to teach them how to do it," are reducing the little ones to a state of practical paralysis? ... The too loving mother, the one who is too competent, the one who is too wedded to the regularity of her household routine, the impatient mother, the one who is "no teach and never can tell anybody how to do things," all these diverse personalities, though actuated by quite differing motives, are doing the same thing, unconsciously, benevolently, overbearingly insisting upon living the child's life for him.

p.135 When I feel the temptation, into which my impatient temperament is constantly leading me, to perform some action for a child which he would better do for himself, because his slowness interferes with my household schedule, I bring rigorously to mind the Montessori teacher who did not tuck in the child's napkin. And I severely scrutinize the household process, the regularity of which is being upset, to see if that regularity is really worth a check to the child's growth in self-dependence.

The last portion of the book makes a careful comparison of the American kindergarten to the Montessori method and the philosophy behind each system. It is well worth the visit.

For the Children's Sake by Susan Schaeffer Macaulay
My rating: 3 of 5 stars  and here's another book on education....

These days it seems the only people familiar with the name Charlotte Mason are those who have contemplated educating their children at home. Even then, it is through word-of-mouth or stumbling upon a convention workshop or perhaps a magazine article that one is exposed to Charlotte Mason's philosophy and methodology. I was one of those people. I would have loved to have had this book fall into my hands during my child-raising years. In under 200 pages one is presented a Charlotte Mason "crash course" as it were.

Chapter 1: What Is Education?
Chapter 2: Children Are Born Persons
Chapter 3: Authority and Freedom
Chapter 4: A New Perspective
Chapter 5: Education: A Science of Relationships
Chapter 6: The Way of the Will, Reason, and the Unity of the Whole
Appendix: Parental Liberty in Education (which can be read by following this link -- http://books.google.com/books?id=gdFV...

View all my reviews More Than a Likeness: The Enduring Art of Mary Whyte by Martha R. Severens
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

My "four stars" are more for the amazing ability the subject-Mary Whyte- has with water colors! Thank you Martha Severens for creating this beautiful volume celebrating her work! I loved reading about the artist and her choice of material to paint. You'll want to google her to see her work.

I'm putting this under PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT because my Associate Degree is in Art and still have aspirations.  Art has been on the back burner for most of my adult life.

The Majesty of Calmness by William George Jordan
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Were it not for GOODREADS this little gem would never have crossed my radar. After finishing the 63 pages of a hand-sized edition (think Beatrix Potter to picture the size)borrowed through inter-library loan I looked up the author via wikipedia to find he was a contemporary with my great grandparents and his writings were influential during Teddy Roosevelt's terms of office. I am now curious to read them all. I'm thinking this particular collection of essays is a MUST OWN and is in fact part of the Project Gutenberg.

The essays included in this book are...
I. The Majesty of Calmness
II. Hurry, the Xcourge of America
III. The Power of Personal Influence
IV. The Dignity of Self-Reliance
V. Failure as a Success
VI. Doing Our Best at All Times
VII. The Royal Road to Happiness

I especially enjoyed his essay on HAPPINESS.

p.55 "Happiness has a number of understudies--gratification, satisfaction, content, and pleasure--clever imitators that simulate its appearance rather than emulate its method."

He goes on to briefly explain his observations of these "understudies". I particularly appreciated his exposure of "content" which we more often refer to as "contentment".

p.56 "Content is a greatly overrated virtue. It is a kind of diluted despair; it is the feeling with which we continue to accept substitutes, without striving for the realities. Content makes the trained individual swallow vinegar and try to smack his lips as if it were wine. Content enables one to warm his hands at the fire of a past joy that exists only in memory. Content is a mental and moral chloroform that deadens the activities of the individual to rise to higher planes of life and growth. Man should never be contented with anything less than the best efforts of his nature can possibly secure for him. Content makes the world more comfortable for the individual, but it is the death knell of progress. Man should be content with each step of progress merely as a station, discontented with is as a destination; contented with it as a step; discontented with it as a finality. There are times when a man should be content with what he HAS, but never with what he IS."

Benjamin Franklin's the Art of Virtue: His Formula for Successful Living by Benjamin Franklin
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Here's a peek at Franklin's self-made path to his own improvement and fleshed out with examples from his autobiography. The compiler of this little work was hard-pressed to expand it into something which can be loosely called a book. Even so, I found a few smakerels of pith amongst the marginally inaccessible vocabulary.

I enjoyed reading about how the idea of a lending library caught hold. I appreciated a glimpse of his little private club of twelve and how this club was responsible for the creation of more clubs which together spear-headed much needed civic improvements and modifications.

He was able to take criticism and addressed his character accordingly. For instance, when he was told he was "overbearing and rather insolent" he added a thirteenth virtue: HUMILITY. He addressed this error of his ways by amending his mode of expression. Rather than using words such as "certainly, undoubtedly, etc." he adopted the use of phrases such as "I conceive", "I apprehend", or "I imagine, a thing to be so or so; or it so appears to me at present". He goes on to say, "I soon found the advantage of this change in my manners; the conversations I engaged in went on more pleasantly. The modest way in which I proposed my opinions procured them a readier reception and less contradiction; I had less mortification when I was found to be in the wrong; and I more easily prevailed with others to give up their mistakes and join with me, when I happened to be in the right".

His list of twelve virtues (complete with his own definition of them) were tackled by him one per week with a ledger and tracking system of his own design. Temperance, Silence, Order, Resolution, Frugality, Industry, Sincerity, Justice, Moderation, Cleanliness, Tranquility, Chastity.

I found his thoughts on religion to be of interest. I hadn't known he was a vegetarian (and it's unclear whether or not this was a life-long choice). I had always heard he had skipped out on his indenturetude to his brother but I had never heard that they made amends and that he was able to fulfill that obligation by taking on his brother's son in turn.
I hadn't known that Franklin favored the practical education of women to fit them for business.

If I had my own copy of this it would be all marked up with highlights. Yes, I highly recommend it.

The Charge: Activating the 10 Human Drives That Make You Feel Alive by Brendon Burchard
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Lots of good ideas and writing prompts.


Lessons from Madame Chic: 20 Stylish Secrets I Learned While Living in Paris by Jennifer L. Scott
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

readable
inspiring
practical
doable
entertaining

I like everything about this book -- its contents, its format, its size, everything. I read a library copy and now I'm going to acquire a copy for myself.


My dad once told me there are two thrills in life -- the thrill of recognition and the thrill of discovery. I found a lot of both in this little volume. I want to go through it again and annotate it with examples from my own life, experiences, and upbringing.

Very Good Lives: The Fringe Benefits of Failure and the Importance of Imagination by J.K. Rowling
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

The commencement address given by J.K. Rowling to the Harvard class of 2008 has made it into gift book format. The text is embellished by simple drawings -- usually red or black or a mix and sometimes a splash of gray -- which enhance the main thought of each paragraph. Definitely worth reading and I wouldn't mind owning a copy. (Graphically, this is a success, compared to Neil Gaiman's "Make Good Art" gift book which tends to busy and cluttered and the illustrations overwhelming or even detracting from the words).

Read 100 books -- 10 FAMILY FOCUS

Raising Lifelong Learners: A Parent's Guide by Lucy McCormick Calkins
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

My children's ages now range from 16 to 29 so you may wonder why on earth I would choose to read a book such as this. Perhaps I think of myself as a "lifelong learner". Perhaps I hope that something I did while raising my six daughters made of them "lifelong learners". I found the thoughts of the author to be very refreshing, sensible, and what is more--backed up with findings of many research studies and personal experience.

While the author was not a home-educator, nor does she mention home-education even once, her very readable suggestions offer gentle guidance to any parent, no matter what the educational preferences for their children may be.

She begins with infancy, working on to early education and then includes the middle childhood years. She addresses all the subject matter. Her chapters progress from "talk--the foundation of literacy" to "reading aloud--an apprenticeship in the literate life" to "early writing" and "early reading". She includes a wonderful chapter on "playing well". She fleshes out "helping children develop good work habits: hobbies, projects, chores, and the lessons they teach". "Reading" and "writing" in the "middle childhood years" follow. Then she walks us through math, science, and social studies.

This six appendixes written by her co-author are for the parents who are invested in public education. This section includes pro's and con's, legal rights and concerns, and selection of programs and how to have influence in district offerings.

After posting my review of this book I skimmed the reviews of others. One person said any parent with common sense would follow this course, and therefore he was disappointed. I think he mistakes "common sense" for "scripting". I must have somehow been scripted with this vein of common sense, as her suggestions were what I instinctively used. I am very grateful for the influences which my parents had in my life and their parents in theirs and so forth. Parents experience so much stress when it comes to education and their children -- they want their children to have the best possible launch in life. Often, when we act upon these fears and whatever methods that are trending the result is that families are held hostage through rigidly following workbooks, programs, and incessantly hammering away at the "ought to's". Which is precisely why this book is so important and has so much to offer.

101 Things You Should Do Before Your Kids Leave Home by David Bordon
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Whatever you plan to "put into" your kids, you'd better have it done by age 14. I loved the notion of making a bucket list, as it were. The "scrapbooking mom" in me would then create a page for each one and document them with photos and journaling as we ticked them off. Each of the suggestions in this book is fleshed out with a page of narration--the whys and hows and possibilities.

My children are mostly grown now, so what we would do with something like this is look back and create our own journey, calling it something like "Mom's Rules of the Universe: A Guide for Scripting Ourselves and Our Families".

I tagged 60 of the 101 ideas to talk about with my family. Anyone at a loss of what to do on "Monday Family Night" would do well to consult this little tome for inspiration.

Here's a sample suggestion from the book...
#50 FIND A CHURCH AND STICK TO IT (p.100)
"Church families are as dysfunctional as any other. But they're also the place where you and your children learn to deal with problems, to grow, and to forgive. "Getting along" skills grow at church.
There are many different types of churchgoers. You have the only-on-Christmas-and-Easter crowd and the whenever-the-building's-open crew, and those who don't go anymore. The latter group sees church as a machine of abrasive parts and squeaking gears. But they may be missing the big picture. True church is a place of excitement where like minds gather for a greater purpose.
...
Once you've found a church and feel settled, support your pastor and fellow believers. Otherwise you and your children will forever feel like outsiders and never learn the value of commitment.
Being faithful to your church is a way of showing unconditional love to flawed people. Show your kids it's okay to settle for the off-key earthly choir and a congregation full of people trying, but not quite there yet. Standing back in judgment isn't the answer--never has been. Only by joining in will you see discord disappear, joys heightened, and get a small sliver of your heavenly home."

I liked this so much I bought a copy after reading it.

The Home-Maker by Dorothy Canfield Fisher
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Best known for her children's novel, "Understood Betsy", and also for her non-fiction works such as "Montessori Mother", Fisher wrote many novels for adults, including this one first published in 1924, in which she fleshes out her insights and philosophy while digging at the roots of some of our most deeply held prejudices.

The work, as a whole, prompted me to examine my own experiences and philosophies as a wife, mother, and creative individual.

I won't attempt to introduce characters or summarize plot. I will nail down a dozen passages. These may have the effect of "spoilers", so proceed with that risk in mind.

p.76 (vocabulary: "Gehenna") "In Jewish, Christian and Islamic scripture, Gehenna is a destination of the wicked." -- Wikipedia
Mrs. Prouty ...was looking at a $200 fur coat as tragically as though it were the Pearly Gates and she sinking to Gehenna.

p.176 She never made the slightest effort of her own accord to escape from the rubber-stamp formula in which she had been brought up. By lively joshing you could occasionally jolt her into a spontaneous perception of her own, but the minute you stopped, back she sank and pulled the cover of the Ladies' Guild mummy-case over her.

p.178 "Do you know what you are saying to me? You are telling me that you really think that home-making is a poor, mean, cheap job beneath the dignity of anybody who can do anything else." --Lester Knapp
"How dare you say such a thing! I never dreamed of having such an awful idea." --Mattie Farnham
p.179 She brought out a formula again, but this time with heartfelt personal conviction. "Home-making is the noblest work anybody can do!"

p.180 "Don't go looking to see if the furniture is dusted or the floor polished," said Lester calmly. "We concentrate on the important things in our house and let the non-essentials go."

p.182 Stephen had squatted down again to his sand. She went cautiously towards the wide plank to see what he was doing, prepared to have him snarl out one of his hateful catch-words: "Go 'way!" or the one he had acquired lately, the insolent, "Who's doing this anyhow?"
But what she saw was so astonishing to her that before she could stop to think, she burst out in an impulsive exclamation of admiration, "Why, Stephen Knapp, did you do all that yourself?"
Beyond the board lay a tiny fairy-world of small tree-lined, pebble-paved roads, moss-covered hills, small looking-glass lakes, white pasteboard farmhouses with green blinds, surrounded by neat white tooth-pick fences, broad meadows with red-and-white paper cows and a tiny farm wagon with minute, plumped-out sacks, driving to the railroad.

p.189-190 ... it was easier to talk about things you cared awfully about when you were working together. Helen often wondered why this was, why she didn't feel so shy when she was doing something with her hands, buttering a cake-tin, or cutting animal-shaped cookies...

p.192 One day, as she washed the breakfast dishes for Father to wipe, she noticed how the daffodils ... were reflected in a wet milk-pan. It made her think a poem, which she said over in her head to make sure it was all right, and then repeated to Father, "The shining tin usefulness of the milk-pan Is glorified into beauty By the presence of a flower."
...She had secretly a high opinion of her own talents. Why had she said it aloud except to make Father think what a remarkable child she was? She washed the dishes thoughtfully, feeling a gnawing discomfort. It was horrid of her to have said that just to make Father admire her. It was showing off. She hated people who showed off. She decided ascetically to punish herself by owning up to her conceit. "I only told that poem to you because I thought it would make you think what a poetic child I am," she confessed contritely. "It wasn't really that I thought so much about the flower."
p.193 She felt better. There now! Father would think what an honest, sincere child she was!
Oh, dear! That was showing off too! As bad as the first time! She said hastily, "And I only owned up because I thought it would make you think I'm honest and didn't want to show off!"
This sort of tortuous winding was very familiar to Helen. She frequently got herself into it and never knew how to get out. It always frightened her a little, made her lose her head. She felt startled now. "Why, Father, do you suppose I only said THAT, too, to make you..." She lifted her dripping hands out of the dishwater and turned wide, frightened eyes on her father. "Oh, Father, there I go! Do YOU ever get going like that? One idea hitched to another and another and another; and you keep grabbing at them and can't get hold of one tight enough to hold it still?"
Lester laughed ruefully. "DO I? Nothing but!..."

p.253 It was abominable to be poor! It brought out the worst in every one. When you were distracted with worry about money, you simply weren't yourself.

p.258 Poverty...isolation, monotony, stagnation, killing depression over never-ending servile tasks...POVERTY!

p.273-274 He thought of the long hours during which he bent his utmost attention on the children to understand them, to see what kind of children they were, to think what they needed most now--not little passing pleasures such as good nature and indulgence would suggest, but real food for what was deepest in them. He thought of how he used his close hourly contact with them as a means of looking into their minds and hearts; how he used the work-in-common with them as a scientist conducts an experiment station to accumulate data as material for his intelligence to arrange in order, so that his decisions might be just and far-sighted as well as loving. He thought how in the blessed mental leisure which comes with small mechanical tasks he pored over this data, considered it and reconsidered in the light of some newer evidence--where was now a good-natured young hired girl, let her be ever so indulgent and gentle? "You can't HIRE somebody to be a parent for your children!" he thought again, passionately.

p.276 Over his head Tradition swung a bludgeon he knew he could not parry.

p.278 Why, the fanatic feminists were right, after all. Under its greasy camouflage of chivalry, society is really based on a contempt for women's work in the home. The only women who were paid, either in human respect or in money, were women who gave up their traditional job of creating harmony out of human relationships and did something really useful, bought or sold or created material objects.

The Mother at Home by John S C Abbott
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

What would you expect from a parenting book penned by a pastor born 200 years ago? If I hadn't read a rave review from someone who included a disclaimer that some of the discipline techniques touted in the preface would have put her off I too would have shut the book and gone no further. However, I found it to be filled with good principles and solid suggestions.

Today's reader will have to do some mental editing to adjust the author's recommendations to what is now known about child development. The author directs his remarks to those who are of a Judeo-Christian persuasion. I found many of his points to be instructive even now. All my children are raised, making the reading of this book a reflective examination of my own motherhood journey.

The writer proceeds with bullet points and then fleshes them out with chatty examples so his meaning does not escape the reader. Looking at the bullets alone strips the work down to the bone, thus losing the charm of the work. I make the following notes to jog my memory and to pair with the quotes I have collected from the book.

I. Obedience is absolutely essential to proper family government (p.18)

II. How is this habit of obedience to be established? (p.22)
1. Never give a command which you do not intend shall be obeyed.(p22)
2. Never punish when the child has not intentionally done wrong.(p49)
3. Never think that your child is too young to obey.(p55)
4. Guard against too much severity.(p.57)

Chapter IV - The Mother's Difficulties
1. One great obstacle is the want of self-control on the part of parents.(p61)
2. Another great obstacle in the way is the want of resolution.(p64)
3. Another great obstacle in the way of training up a happy and virtuous family is the occasional want of harmony between parents on the subject of education.(p75)

Chapter V - Faults and Errors
1. Do not talk about children in their presence.(p83)
2. Do not make exhibitions of your children's attainments.(p88)
3. Do not deceive children.(p97)
4. Do not be continually finding fault.(p100)
5. Never punish by exciting imaginary fears.(p107)

Chapter VI - Religious Instruction
1. Children must be taught religious truth at home.(p113)
2. Parents must have deep devotional feelings themselves.(p115)
3. Present religion in a cheerful aspect.(p119)
4. Improve appropriate occasions.(p121)
5. Avoid inappropriate occasions.(p133)

Chapter VII - Religious Instruction -cont.-
1. It is our privilege and our duty to describe heaven to our children as God has described it to us.(p138)
2. Dwell particularly upon the Saviour.(p142)
3. Pray with your children.(p146)
4. Teach your children to pray themselves.(p151)
5. Expect that your child will become a Christian.(p155)
6. Do not speak to others of the piety of your child.(p158)

Chapter VIII - Results
1. Mothers have as powerful an influence over the welfare of future generations as all other causes combined.(p165)
2. There is certainly much that fathers can do, but this treatise is prepared to impress upon the mind the duties of mothers.(p167)
3. Nothing can be of greater importance to the parents and child than a correct system of family government.(p171)
4. Keeping a journal of observations about your child will help the mother determine a course of action.(p173)
a. The habit of keeping such a record indces a mother to look with greater scrutiny into her own motives of action, into her principles of family government, and to govern her own heart and conduct, and cultivate more of a spirit which every mother needs,--a spirit of prayer.(p177)
b. The plan I would suggest might be something like the following.
1. Notice the earliest developements of temper.
2. Remark what things peculiarly interest your child.
3. Describe the course pursued to insure obedience.
4. Describe the course of first religious instruction and what generally excites the strongest interest in your child's mind.


Dad Time: Savoring the God-Given Moments of Fatherhood by Max Lucado
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

What a treat it was to read a few passages every morning and night. This is a compilation from 36 of the author's books of articles that focus on being a father, many of which also point to the love of Christ and God for us and their workings in our lives. Some of the articles were taken from unpublished sermons he has given.

My only regret is there is no table of contents. It would be good to own a copy of this to pull out and read on occasion.


Alexander and the Wonderful, Marvelous, Excellent, Terrific Ninety Days: An Almost Completely Honest Account of What Happened to Our Family When Our Youngest Son, His Wife, Their Baby, Their Toddler, and Their Five-Year-Old Came to Live with Us for Thr... by Judith Viorst
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Written by a grandparent for grandparents, it's the sort of book you pack around in your bag for those odd minutes you find yourself waiting -- in the car, at an appointment, for a timer beep.

The author shares the plans, process, and recovery of a family (which includes a son, daughter-in-law, baby, toddler, and six year old) sharing her home for three months.

I am very different from her so would not share many of her issues. However, I found some value in seeing a different approach than I would make. Her wrap-up chapters where she has interviewed others do look at a variety of styles.

I wondered if the author was more like my paternal grandmother. I could appreciate her in a different (better?) way having read this account.

For the Family's Sake by Susan Schaeffer Macaulay
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

The author and I could be "kindred spirits". She offers much comforting, encouraging, and practical advice about creating a rich family life -- no matter if one is single, newlywed, raising children, or past that.

When Children Love to Learn: A Practical Application of Charlotte Mason's Philosophy for Today by Elaine Cooper
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Anyone who shares an interest in educational philosophy will at some point need to look at Charlotte Mason, an educator during the Victorian era whose vision lives on in today's learning landscape. This volume makes her work accessible through the editor's forward and instructive essays by educators well versed in her methods.

Having attended several Mason workshops during the years I was raising my children I found her methods to be very duplicatable and effective. So it was with interest I read her objections to German philosopher Johann Herbart's theory (on pages 118 and 119 of this work). I think I was squarely in his camp, so to speak, and all my self-perceived successes were actually failures and all my self-perceived failures were successes (regarding my children's educations).

"...His theory of learning revolves around the thought that the child has no personality in the sense that Miss Mason described or believed, that ideas contend to find entrance into the threshold of the child's mind, and that once in, these ideas form themselves in related groups called apperception masses. It becomes the role of the teacher to arrange appropriate ideas within the curriculum, to make the best relations between ideas so that cognitive connections may be facilitated. It is like the arranging of mental furniture in the mind's household, with the teacher playing the part of interior decorator. In this model the teacher is the active player, choosing the ideas, arranging the correlations, planning out every contingency. The child becomes a new creation as he comes forth from the hands of the teacher. These well-planned units of instruction were called concentrations schemes.
One such plan was designed around Robinson Crusoe. It was here that the plans of a teacher-centered effort came forth: The whole unit was systematized, arranged, and packaged for the child's consumption, for consumer he is, in Herbart's way of thinking. As these elementary-aged students read a child's adaptation of the original classic work, they were provided with integrating experiences that connect art, handicrafts, writing, recitation, and arithmetic. Students drew Crusoe's island, wrote about his experiences, counted wine casks, and built models. In these tasks Miss Mason noted seeds of inanity, as she believed the content to be trivial indeed. The same might be said of units centered on themes such as apples or teddy bears, topics that find their way into many classrooms. Her word for this would be twaddle, and an answer to the concentration scheme approach is as follows:
As I have said elsewhere, the ideas required for sustenance
of children are to be found mainly in books of literary quality;
given these the mind does for itself the sorting, arranging,
selecting, rejecting, classifying, which Herbart leaves to the
struggle of the promiscuous [indiscriminate] ideas which manage
to cross the threshold. Mason, HOME EDUCATION, 315. "

However, having said all that, I am complete agreement with the following observations made under the heading "A Curriculum Scope" found on page 213:

"Looking at what is to be taught throughout the years of schooling can be an overwhelming task at times as we see examples of delayed and accelerated learning. These are two extremes to avoid. The attitude of not introducing a discipline of study until children show an interest allows children to limit themselves according to what they know, as well as to acquire a debilitating habit of acting according to feelings. By contrast, the accelerated approach looks at learning in the realm of conquest rather than as a natural affinity in relationship with the world."

The team that created this book have also established a school (1999) which is called Ambleside. More information can be found here: https://www.amblesideonline.org/ .