A Spring Full of Unexpected Surprises (Books Lately, April 2023)

I originally styled this post as a fun-and-funny pregnancy announcement for baby #8, whose due date would have been sometime around Thanksgiving, and whom we ended up losing in May at the end of the first trimester. I will get around to telling that story sometime. 

The same weekend that we discovered that we had gained a new team member, we also noticed that both of our adopted strays were looking... suspiciously plump. And yes, they were both expecting. April brought, along with morning sickness for me, two litters of kitties - five on Easter Monday, and four more two weeks later. 

We are now trying to find new homes for said kitties. Do y'all know how hard it is to find people who want kittens? Yowza. We have notified social media, my husband's coworkers, our family, our church, the homeschooling community, neighbors, and practically everyone we've known or met over the past forty years - and have had very little luck. Still working on that problem.

In the meantime, we are enjoying said kitties - there's nothing like opening a sock drawer and finding it full of kittens.

From litter #1

From litter #2

And so, continuing where I left off...

If you're all wondering why I have an insanely long list of books this month, pregnancy nausea = lots of neglected housework + lots of down time spent reading. I have also been doing a lot of pre-reading for three literature-based homeschool courses (Modern History, British Lit 1, British Lit 2) that I am writing for our 16yo. When those lists are finished, I will definitely publish them here!

One note: I have considered the issue of whether or not to note my negative impressions of books that I read. The "only positive things" rule is a possibility, and not a bad one. However, it could also be considered as less than completely honest - and I also do not want to be guilty of recommending books without adding warnings about potential textual pitfalls. Thus, I will attempt to be positive in the main, and will do my best to observe the law of charity when I do feel the need to add a negative note about any book.

One other note: I love back-and-forth conversation - just not trolling and "you are so stupid" comments. Please feel free to engage in discussion, as long as it is rational, conversational, and kind. 

Palo Verde blossoms - the desert's last gift to us before the summer grind begins. 

Books Lately, April 2023

For Adults

Under the Tuscan Sun: At Home in Italy (Frances Mayes) – Nonfiction narrative. An American couple buys and renovates a vintage home in rural Italy. Filled with details about their home renovation and their life in Italy, with lots of funny interactions with locals and adventures in learning about Italian life. The one downside is that the book at times felt interminably long. However, it was a good read, and I enjoyed it. There is a sequel that I have not yet read: "Bella Tuscany: The Sweet Life in Italy."

If you enjoy this genera, you might enjoy one of my favorites, "A Year in Provence" by Peter Mayle. The setting is rural France. 

The Last Bookshop in London: A Novel of World War II (Madeline Martin) - Historical fiction. A young woman, moving to London, works in a bookshop during the London Blitz. Enjoyable, readable, fun. Not a deep book or a deeply memorable book (a month later, I can barely remember reading it - though that's probably my fault, not hers), but good. My one worldview pique was a brief flare of feminism (my lifetime arch-nemesis), but otherwise, fun and unobjectionable. And a book in praise of books? Gotta love it. 

Hello, Habits : A Minimalist's Guide to a Better Life (Fumio Sasaki) – Remember the fellow whose minimalist lifestyle allowed him to pack his apartment, move, and unpack his things in his new apartment... all within 90 minutes? He's back with a sequel to the original "Goodbye Things: The New Japanese Minimalism" - this time a book about habit formation. I enjoyed this very much.

Forever, Erma: Best Loved Writing from America's Favorite Humorist (Erma Bombeck) - I remember my mother having books by Erma Bombeck, so was interested to see what I thought as an adult of her writing. Reading her was great fun. While the writing is now dated, and I didn't agree with all of her opinions, there is no doubt that she was a kind and funny lady. I was especially interested to learn that she lived and died in my current home city - a fun and surprising discovery. 

Jesus and the Jewish Roots of the Eucharist (Brant Pitre) – I've heard about this book for years, and it really was as good as everyone said it was. This was doubly meaningful for me, as I have an unfortunate tendency to find anything concerning the Old Testament rather dull. But dull this book was not. I'm looking forward to reading Pitre's other works. 

The Decadent Society: How We Became a Victim of Our Own Success (Ross Douthat) – In this book, Douthat details societal decadence - moral laxity, self-indulgence, the waning of innovation, etc. - and examines the West in this light. The big question, then, is where will we go from here? Will the West fall to a more vibrant and virile civilization? Will we experience renewal from an unknown source? I enjoyed this book - certainly the first half. After that, I felt that it got more diffuse and wandering - perhaps not surprising, as the "what next?" question could possibly go in so many directions. While I love Douthat, this wasn't my favorite of his books - but it was an interesting read. If you read the comment section in the link above, you'll see people giving great for-and-against arguments for this book. I recommend skimming them.

The Battle for the American Mind: Uprooting a Century of Miseducation (Pete Hegseth) – This one definitely wins an award for this month - it was a wonderful and very important book. The text comprises a history of American/Western education, with an especial focus on the concept of paideia - something that is difficult to translate into English, but comprises elements of a civilization's spirit, worldview, source of culture, and vision of the good life. From the book, "Paideia, simply defined, represents the deeply seated affections, thinking, viewpoints, and virtues embedded in children at a young age, or, more simply, the rearing, molding, and education of a child." The author shows how the paideia of American education has progressed from traditional Christian/Western paideia into progressive paideia and is now fully controlled by Marxist paideia - and the answer to that problem. Whether you have children in school, or school them at home, this issue is vitally important to all of us. I highly recommend reading this book, and passing it on to others. 

Warriors Don’t Cry: A Searing Memoir of the Battle to Integrate Little Rock's Central High (Melba Pattilla Beans) – Non-fiction narrative. One of the original black students to enter Little Rock High School tells the hair-raising tale of her time at that school. A heartbreaking story. While I had heard for years about this event, I had no idea that it was so intense and long-lasting. I highly recommend this book. 

To Love and Be Loved: A Personal Portrait of Mother Teresa (Jim Towey) – Biography and memoir. Written recently by a man who knew Mother Teresa personally. While I grew up hearing of Mother Teresa, I knew almost nothing about her. This book was an absolute joy to read. Highly recommended. 

Tolkien: Man and Myth (Joseph Pearce) – Biography. I was a latecomer to the hobbit party. As a child, I was not particularly fond of "The Hobbit," and I found "The Lord of the Rings" completely mystifying. (It didn't help that Tolkien had a penchant for choosing close-sounding names - Eowyn/Eomer, Theoden/Theodred, and my all-time mystery, Sauron/Saruman. I never knew what was going on.) But after falling in love with the movie trilogy (the first one, not the second one), I gave LOTR another try - and fell in love. Tolkien's worldview and theological insights are some of the deepest I've found - and he manages to convey them perfectly without a hint of any formal religion at all. I have now read LOTR multiple times - at least once a year - and love it more each time. Reading this biography of Tolkien was a joy. 

How to Ruin Your Life By 30: Nine Surprisingly Everyday Mistakes You Might Be Making Right Now (Steve Farrar) - Christian non-fiction. A book for teens and young adults, giving wisdom on how not to make a mess of their getting-started years. My feelings on this book were mixed. On the one hand, I felt - quite frequently - that some issues were soft-peddled and were never quite addressed with the firmness and clarity that I thought necessary. However, he obviously wrote from the heart, and he had good advice. I especially liked his description having written down, while in college (or thereabouts), a list of his "strong Christian" friends, and seeing, through the years, how a huge majority (I believe it was 50 of 53) later walked away from Christ. This matches my experience. It's a sobering wake-up call - just because you have a strong faith as a young person does not mean that you'll keep it. (I'm thinking of Joshua Harris.) Anyhow, while this book didn't quite meet my expectations, I appreciated it. Also, this is - I believe - actually a sequel, written for a younger crowd, to the original book, "How to Ruin Your Life By 40," which I haven't yet read. Let me know if you've read that one, and if so, what you thought of it. 

The Four Witnesses: The Early Church in Her Own Words (Rod Bennett) - A biographical account of four of the earliest church fathers - Clement of Rome, Ignatius of Antioch, Justin Martyr, and Irenaeus of Lyons - relying heavily on their personal writings and the writings of their contemporaries. I was prepared for this to be on the dry and dull side; to my surprise, it was not. It was fascinating! I am looking forward to reading the sequel, Four More Witnesses: Further Testimony from Christians before Constantine (which covers the lives and writings of Hermas, Clement of Alexandria, Hippolytus, and Origen). The author, Rod Bennett, has also written numerous other books, which I hope to check out soon. 

Re-reads

Rose Cottage (Mary Stewart) - I was a huge Mary Stewart fan in high school - especially of her Arthurian series. (Warning: contains highly inappropriate material; I recommend editing if you are going to have these around.) "Rose Cottage" is a light romance novel in post-WWII England, and it's always been a favorite. It is, however, hard to ignore one of the main themes of the book - to wit, that "sexual immorality isn't the problem, it's the religious meanies who dare to criticize it who are the problem." And I answer to that, nope, God gave us moral rules for a reason, and they should be obeyed and enforced, for a reason. So, while I still enjoy this book immensely, I am not unaware of the underlying moral problems with the worldview presented therein. 

For Children & Teens

A Long Way From Chicago (Richard Peck) – Tall-tale style fiction. A boy and girl stay with their eccentric grandmother during the Great Depression. The downsides are occasional vulgarity and a great deal of lying (from the grandmother!) - the positives are a well-written, funny story, done in a quasi-tall tale style. After considering it, I passed this book on to our eldest, and he loved it. There is a sequel, "A Year Down Under," which I also enjoyed.

The Blackbird Girls (Anne Blankman) – Historical fiction. Two girls become friends as they deal with loss and change in the wake of the Chernobyl disaster. Oh, boy, did I ever have mixed feelings about this book. On the positive, it's an incredible story, and very well-written. On the negative, the author chose to include extremely dark family themes into the story - a father who beats his daughter and intentionally burns her with a lighted cigarette, a mom's boyfriend who forces the mother to beat her daughter, and the girl who eventually is aided in escaping from her family and goes far away to live incognito with another family. While I otherwise loved this book, I chose not to add it to our family reading list due to the dark themes. If you are considering giving this book to your teens, I recommend pre-reading first. 

The Story That Cannot Be Told (J. Kasper Kramer) - Historical fiction. A girl and her family survive  the last days of Communist Romania. Sorry to say, I just couldn't get into this book. No serious objections, though. If you love this book, write and tell me about it. 

The Hobbit (J. R. R. Tolkien) - Fantasy. I just finished reading this aloud to our children. Surprisingly - I have never been a huge fan of this book - I enjoyed it much more as a read-aloud than I did reading it personally, probably because reading it aloud kept me from skipping all of the descriptive parts! Our children loved this. 

Rufus M. (Eleanor Estes, #3 of 4 in the Moffats Series) - Fiction. I have mentioned the Moffats series before, and I just love it. Slow-paced, gentle, innocent, with hilariously funny artwork - it is a beautiful piece of early-twentieth-century Americana. There are also lots of learning moments about life a hundred years ago - coal-burning stoves, horse-drawn conveyance, kerosene lanterns, etc. Highly recommended. 

Swallows and Amazons (Arthur Ransome) – Fiction. I love this book! Wonderfully gentle and funny, with plenty of children-only adventure that always appeal to young readers. (Think the Boxcar Family series, Enid Blyton's Adventure series, Carol Ryrie Brink's "Baby Island," - all of those wonderful books in which children have on-their-own adventures.) I also love all of the literary allusions (which illustrate to me how poor my own education was - it's always good to be humbled) and all of the folk songs and sea chanties that the children sing together (which similarly illustrate to me the declining level of our own current culture, in which most folk songs have been eliminated). All joking aside, it's good to see glimpses from healthier times to guide us in remaking our own family cultures amongst the wreckage of the West. I find books like this both convicting (culturally and educationally speaking) and encouraging. The one hard part about this book is that it is filled to the brim with sailing terminology, which to a non-boater like myself is rather unintelligible. Some time ago, I did attempt to learn the terms by watching instructional sailing videos, but it did not help. I think that sailing must be best learned hands-on. However, this book is a treasure. It is also the first in a rather large series, all of which I hope to collect. 

Half Magic and Seven Day Magic (Edward Eager) – Fiction. Whether you like these books or not will depend on your stance on the use of magic in literature. If you're okay with it, these old books (and others by Eager) are charming. Their artwork is delightful, and they are also filled with literary allusions to other works (E. Nesbitt, etc.), which make them an ever-evolving joy.

A Bear Called Paddington (James Bond) – Fiction. We all love Paddington! He is one of the great classic British characters, along with Winnie the Pooh and others. We love the sweet hilarity of this book. 

The Four-Story Mistake (Elizabeth Enright, #2 of 4 in the Melendy Quartet series) - Realistic fiction. I grew up on the Melendy Quartet series, and adore it. In my mind, it is a picture of ideal childhood - what everyone's childhood ought to be. (I'm not talking particular details, like having one's mother die, but in  the sense of joy, love, freedom, innocence, the outdoors, and a truly joyful family experience.) I use these often as read-alouds. If you haven't yet caught up with this delightful series, you're in for a treat. 

And a few recipes, but not many, since I wasn't actually cooking during the past month or two. (Unless pouring cold cereal counts as "cooking."):

Hot Cross Buns - For Ash Wednesday or Good Friday. Delicious. 

Keto Lemon Cheesecake Bars - Nobody liked it but me, but I thought it was great! (That's pretty much the fate of all low-carb desserts around here.)

And with that, I wish you all a happy and blessed Eastertide! Have a wonderful month, and I'll see you all next month!