Book List, 2009

| indicates a children's book
x indicates an unfinished book

January
Babette’s Feast.  Isak Dinesen 
I saw the movie before I read the short story.  As great as the movie was, I wondered what else I could get from the story by reading the author’s words.  A bit.
    

|Junie B. Jones and the Stupid Smelly Bus.  Barbara Park
A cute story about a very strong-willed and funny little kindergartner.  There is a series of Junie B. books, probably at least 25 or 30.


February
“Little Selves” by Mary Lerner  
What a sweet short story.  Family history, sort of.  It was written in 1916 and published in The Atlantic Monthly and more currently in The Best American Short Stories of the Century, edited by John Updike.  Margaret O’Brien isn’t far from death, though she is completely lucid.  Family watches her and decides she is “just drawn into herself, as busy as a bee about something, whatever it is that she’s turning over in her head day-in, day-out.”  Margaret is remembering.  And people want to be remembered.  Great short story!  Free to read here.


How to Make a Cherry Pie and See the U.S.A.  Marjorie Priceman 
To me, it’s only redeeming factor is that it has an Airedale in it.  The ADT accompanies the little girl to various states to find various ingredients to make the necessary items to make a cherry pie, such as wood for a rolling pin; sand to make glass for a measuring cup; etc.


|Trouble in the Barkers’ Class.  Tomie DePaola 
Very fun book about Airedales.  The little Airedales, Moffie and Morgie, are just as cute as they can be!  And the wonderful thing is that the new little girl, not the Airedales, is the one causing trouble in the class!!!!  Great Airedales.  Great story.  Perfect book.


Art Making.  Collections and Obsessions.  An Intimate Exploration of the mixed-media work and collections of 35 artists, Lynne Perrella   
Ohhh, what wonderful photographs.  What delicious art.  Collage, mixed-media.  Old, new materials put together in unconventional ways, but often using the most common of materials.  Some of the art was fabulous, some was less interesting to me.  Absolutely no “how-tos” were given.  None.


|Meet the Barkers.  Morgan and Moffat Go to School.  Tomie DePaola 
A children’s book in which the main characters look like Airedales.  The little Barker twins, Morgan and Moffat, prepare and attend school for the first time – and what happens after the first day of school.  Cute story.  Very cute Airedales.


Dragonwyck.  Anya Seton  
Such a novel, along the lines of Jane Eyre.  It held my attention but I kept wondering if I were wasting my time.  A little diversion for a brief time.


xLiterally, the Best Language Book Ever.  Annoying Words and Abused Phrases You should Never Use Again.  Paul Yeager
I did not finish this book.  It is presented, more or less, in dictionary style, with an index at the back to look up those annoying words/phrases and seems to be a list of the author’s pet peeves of misused words/phrases. 
  My favorite was “issue.”  He agrees with me that it’s completely misused these days.  He writes, in part:
  “The word issue has always meant topic, such as The following issues will be discussed at the company meeting: how many extra vacation days will be given to each employee, whether lunch should be extended to an hour and a half, and when we should start having four-day work weeks.  As you can see, those wouldn’t be problems for most of us; they’d be topics that we’d be happy to discuss.
  “Somewhere along the line, though, the word issue has somehow become synonymous with the word problem, such as saying There’s an issue with the copier when flames are shooting out of the back of the machine or I have issues with this report when, in fact, you don’t agree with one word in it.
  “It’s hard to know why this transformation has been allowed to take place, but it’s probably either because we focus on problems  so much that we assume every topic  is viewed as a problem or, more likely, we’re trying to talk about problems in a kind, gentle manner so that others aren’t offended.  The issue–I mean problems–with that is twofold.  First, everyone now knows that you’re talking about a problem when you say issue, so it’s not working.  Second, it leads to confusion among those who prefer to keep using the words in the manner in which they were intended.
  “Put simply, do not use issue  as a synonym for problem, and, by the way, don’t be tempted to use concern  or concerns as an alternative way to say that something is a problem when you’re afraid to say so.  It’s not an improvement and leads to the same confusion.”


March
|Baby Talk. A Book of First Words and Phrases.  Judy Hindley
Cute pictures, simple rhyming verses.  Great to use as a find and point book for little ones.  It was on the library sale table at the G.C. library, otherwise I would not have encountered and read it.


The Pillars of the Earth.  Ken Follett  
A friend claimed this as her favorite book.  I was utterly and totally disappointed.  I thought the writing was okay but not great.  He especially did not portray the conversations as they might have been in the 1000's.  They sounded very 2000ish.  It was a nearly-1000-page book, so it might have been hard to hold the interest of the reader with very few characters, but this book had a bunch of story-lines, a bunch of main characters.  Somehow, for me, it just didn’t flow.  Yes, it held my attention, wondering the outcome of some of the characters, but I could never, never claim it as one of my favorite books.  I’m almost disappointed to have wasted my time on it.  And, I was grateful to be able to skip over the too many paragraphs of sex and violence. 


The Middle Place.  Kelly Corrigan 
Kelly writes about her experiences with breast cancer, with her dad’s prostate cancer, and about learning to let go of being the child of parents, to become the parent of children.  There was some awful language (usually when expressing anger), but for the most part, she uses the English language beautifully. 


The Art of Racing in the Rain.  Garth Stein.
Enzo, the dog, recounts his life with Denny, Denny's wife Eve, and their daughter, Zoe.  Denny is a race car driver who drives in the rain better than anyone.  Enzo believes he will be reincarnated as a human man with opposable thumbs, a short tongue with which to talk, and a great deal of knowledge gained as a dog.  Enzo often compares things learned in racing with life experiences.  Again, some awful language (less than Corrigan’s book), but an interesting perspective.
  One quote I liked was this:  “There is no dishonor in losing the race....  There is only dishonor in not racing because you are afraid to lose.”  (p. 277)


[What is it with modern writers that they need to use such foul language?!!!  In Corrigan’s instance, she seems to use it most when she’s angry.  She has a great command of the English language – using vulgarity like she does diminishes her writing, in my estimation.  In Stein’s book, it seems to be used for emphasis by one character, which tells me what kind of a character he is.]


April
|Our Prairie Home.  A Picture Album.  Brooke Goffstein 
I happened upon this book at the G. C. library on the sale table.  What an absolutely charming book!  Photographs of carved little people in simple settings in a home.  Alvina, single, moves in with her sister and brother-in-law, Lillian and Bernard, and their daughter, Mildred.  Very simple captions to these wonderful photographs, but you can tell so much about the people from them.  What an adorable book!  So I looked up some more of Goffstein’s books, listed below.  Children’s books, of course....


|Brookie and Her Lamb.  M. B. Goffstein 
Love than transcends beyond abilities.  From the jacket: “Brookie tries to teach her little lamb to read and sing, but finds that he is limited to baa-ing.  After a short walk with him clears her mind, she takes him home and gives him lessons at which a lamb can excel.”  Very simple line drawings.  Again, charming.


|Our Snowman.  M. B. Goffstein. 
First-person and her brother build a snowman.  Night comes, he’s alone, and First-person cries.  Dad goes out and helps her build a wife for him.  Pastel drawings, simple narrative, very effective.


|Fish for Supper.  M. B. Goffstein
Gramma gets up at 5 a.m., makes breakfast, gets into the boat, rows out on the lake and fishes all day.  Comes home, makes supper, goes to bed so she can go fishing the next day.  Not quite as charming as the previous books.


|A Writer.  M. B. Goffstein 
A writer sits on the couch and thinks, ideas come, ideas go....  Not so charming as the first books.


|Artist’s Helpers Enjoy the Evenings.  M. B. Goffstein 
Fun book.  Five pastel sticks:  Blanc (Blonk) White; Noir (Nwahr) Black; Gris (Gree) Gray; Bistre (Beestra) Brown; Sanguine (songeen) Red) are friends and take care of each other.  When they go to the desert, they keep hold of Sanguine.  When they go out at dusk, they take care of Gris, and at night, they never let go of Noir or Bistre.  Fun personification.


The Scarlet Pimpernel.  Baroness Orczy.
I don’t usually go for mysteries and I guess I didn’t realize this was a mystery when I started listening to it in the car on CD.  Somewhere I saw it recommended and I just wanted something easy to listen to while driving.  Well, it turned out to be one of those books I didn’t want to put down!  I listened in the car, then back inside when I had a few minutes, I started reading.  Forget the CD.  Just read.  I enjoyed it.  (about French Revolution time period)


May
The Count of Monte Cristo.  Alexandre Dumas 
I did not want to put this book down.  It was a good follow-up to The Scarlet Pimpernel, at least as far as time sequence.  It takes place a few years later, still in France.  As the story begins Edmond, a young sailor, is disembarking from a ship.  We learn that he is about to become the captain and is about to become engaged to Mercedes.  And then vengeful actions of others cause him to be imprisoned for a decade.  I will be interested to see how the movies portray him – hero or villain.  In a way, he’s both.  Worth the time to read all 1243 pages!  (about French Revolution time period)


Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day.  Winifred Watson 
A middle-aged governess turns up for the wrong job and is drawn into the life of a young star.  The novel was written and takes place in 1938.


Lambs of God.  Marele Day
Three nuns who have outlived the others are living an isolated and primitive existence in a run-down convent on an island.  They are visited by an up-and-coming young priest who has in mind to sell the property for a rich people’s retreat.  Cultures collide.  Interesting story.


A Tale of Two Cities.  Charles Dickens 
I am sick of the French Revolution!  I did not know this was a book about that time period or perhaps I would have chosen to read it at a different time.  This is the 3rd, almost in a row, of books about it.  So, it was interesting.  Dickens’s language is a little different than we’re accustomed to these days, but it was readable and interesting.  I suppose there’s lots more research I could do to learn more about the time, about Dickens’s writing style, about the novel itself, but I don’t want to.


June
Dog On It.  A Chet and Bernie Mystery.  Spencer Quinn
I listened to part of this on CD, read part of it.  Very light reading, entertaining.  It is told from the perspective of Chet, the dog.  Fun.  I suppose I would read the next one that comes out, if one does.  (Too bad Chet’s not an Airedale!)


Garden Spells.  Sarah Addison Allen
Finished in one day.  Some magical realism, personalities, and characters.  I enjoyed the story.  As I was reading it, it occurred to me that the main character is an introvert.


The Introvert Advantage.  How to Thrive in an Extrovert World.  Marti Olsen Laney
Excellent book.  I loved learning that the introvert and extrovert brains work differently physiologically.  She gives lots of encouragement, helpful ideas, and ways to feel good about being an introvert and to adjust to the challenges introverts face.  I should read it again.  [But Quiet is better, in my opinion.]


Vienna Prelude.  The Zion Covenant 1.  Bodie & Brock Thoene 
I wasn’t sure I wanted to read another book written about the WWII era, but it drew me in.  This takes place in Vienna and Berlin just as Hitler comes to power in 1936.  From what I understand, Brock does the research for the books and Bodie writes them.  They are historically accurate as far as places and events of the known characters. 


How Full Is Your Bucket?  Positive Strategies for Work and Life.  Tom Rath and Donald O. Clifton
Positive influences, comments, thoughts are more effective than negative.  Our positives influence others as well as ourselves.


The Inheritance.  Louisa May Alcott
This is Alcott’s first, unpublished novel, written when she was 17.  Worth the read, if only because it’s Alcott’s first.


The Enchanted Barn.  Grace Livingston Hill 
This book was published in 1917.  It was interesting to read about the time period - trolleys, climbing down from cars, and that a few miles from the center of the city it was still countryside.  Shirley Hollister, the main character, and her family have their values in the right place. 
  Hill began writing in 1877 and had books published for 72 years!!!!  From the Grace Livingston Hill website:  [Her writing] “is at times a Christian life lesson, a romance, first-hand history, or even an outreach tool. The impact is as varied as the readers themselves.  No matter how we read Grace's books, they inspire us to reach new heights.”


July
Prague Counterpoint.  The Zion Covenant 2.  Bodie & Brock Thoene 
Sequel to Vienna Prelude.  It continues the story of Elisa, Leah, John Murphy, and others.  It goes behind the scenes in March 1938 Nazi Germany with some who serve in the Nazi army who are anti-Nazi.  I thought it was really good.
  This book (p. 247) has the German prayer that Aunt Dot said Aunt Mina used to say and which Aunt Dot gave me a copy:
  I am small, my heart is pure....  No one shall live in it but Jesus alone.
  Ich bin klein, mein Herz ist rein.  Soll niemand drin wohnen als Jesus allein....


Munich Signature.  The Zion Covenant 3.  Bodie Thoene
You know, we know the outcome of World War II, but these books bring that time period down to a personal level.  I didn’t want to stop reading, couldn’t wait to get back to reading when I had to stop.  What a dark time period in European history, and probably for much of the world.  Scary times, too.  Takes place beginning in March 1938.


The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society.  Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows 
I love this book!  The story is told through letters and it takes place in London and Guernsey, the Channel Islands, just after World War II.  Juliet is an author and is contacted by Dawsey Adams, a member of the literary society, because he found her name and address as an owner of one of the books he bought 2nd hand.  It’s a book about strength and love and compassion - and I loved it!  Mary Ann Shaffer did research about the Channel Islands and its German occupation and I think the story is based on fact, though the characters are probably not “real.”


Jerusalem Interlude.  The Zion Covenant 4.  Bodie Thoene
This book takes place in August, 1938, in England, France, Germany, and Jerusalem.  Some of it is on-the-edge-of-your-seat reading.  Leah and Shimon are in Jerusalem where a good part of the story continues.  Others in Jerusalem include Rabbi Lebowitz (whose daughter and family are in Poland) and Captain Orde.  Also in Jerusalem we are introduced to Eli, a Jew, and Victoria, an Arab, who are in love.  Elisa and Murphy and her parents, Anna and Theo, are in England.  We learn more about Herschel Grynspan and his family.  We also read about Thomas von Kleistman.


August
Danzig Passage. The Zion Covenant 5.  Bodie Thoene 
The next sequel in the series which takes place in November, 1938.  Jerusalem with Capt. Orde.  England with Eliza and Murphy, Anna and Theo. Germany with some new characters.  Terrifying times, I think.  What a strong soul it would have taken to be Jewish in Europe in 1938!


Warsaw Requiem.  The Zion Covenant 6.  Bodie Thoene 
This book takes place from May to November, 1939.  The Ibsen children, Lori and Jamie; Peter Wallich; Jacob and Mark Kalner; and Alfie Halder.  Elisa and Murphy; others.  It sure held my attention!


London Refrain.  The Zion Covenant 7.  Bodie Thoene
This books takes place in fall 1939 in London, Paris, and Poland.  The beginning overlaps the end of the previous book in the series.  A few more new characters, lots of known ones. 


Paris Encore.  The Zion Covenant 8.  Bodie Thoene
Fall 1939 through mid-February 1940.  Mostly Paris, a little in Germany and England.  Characters we already knew plus some new characters.  I wonder how the series will end!  How will she be able to tie up all the loose ends?


September
Dunkirk Crescendo.  The Zion Covenant 9.  Bodie & Brock Thoene
This one takes place in spring 1940.  Mostly in France.  It was really good, too.
  I liked these books but I don’t think the author/authors did a very good job of wrapping up the whole series.  Some characters just seemed to be dropped, sometimes without us knowing whether they were dead or alive, and we never learned details about how they came through the war.  That’s my only complaint about the series.  I think it was really well-written and I think the authors did a good job of putting fictional characters into historical situations.


October
xUncle Sam’s Plantation.  How Big Government Enslaves America’s Poor and What We Can Do About It.  Star Parker
I liked this book quite a lot, though I didn’t finish the last chapter or so.  It took me too long to read it and I just finally lost interest.  (Does that statement go along with liking it, I wonder.)  Anyway, I thought she did a great job of explaining some of the reasons why America is in the mess it’s in, both morally and financially.  She didn’t always back up her comments with documentation, though she usually cited sources in the text.  In the last chapter that I didn’t read, she covered the “what we can do about it.”


|Good Night, Mr. Tom.  Michelle Magorian
About a young evacuee, William, from London to the country during World War II.  He lands in the home of an old widower, Tom, who is soured against life because his young wife and child died nearly 40 years ago.  Willie, or William or Will, depending on who’s speaking to him, is small, frightened, and bruised.  Tom perceives the problem quickly and with his own quiet ways, helps William gain confidence.  It was a good read.  It is listed as a teen book.


November
A Lantern in Her Hand.  Bess Streeter Aldrich 
I’d borrowed this book from the library before, perused it, and decided I didn’t really want to read it.  Someone recommended it again so I borrowed it again and read it.  Boy, am I glad I did.  It was a really great book.  About dreams, goals, mother-love and mother-sacrifice, about time and youth and age.  The book follows Abbie Mackenzie Deal from youth and her move from Illinois to Iowa, then from Iowa to Nebraska as a young pioneer wife and mother, and on to her later years.  A wonderful book!  This book is definitely worth rereading!  Quotes below.
  Abbie’s observation of Nebraska’s prairie grass as she travelled by wagon when a young wife and mother: “Blow, . . . wave, . . . ripple, . . . dip. . . .”    (p. 69, top)
  On becoming the mother of her second child:  “And now, Abbie’s love was divided between two babies.  No, that is not true.  There is no division nor subtraction in the heart-arithmetic of a good mother.  There are only addition and multiplication.”    (p. 42, paragraph 4)
  In response to a son who moved to Alaska, “Abbie would stop in her work and utter a prayer for him,—and, sent as it were from the bow of a mother’s watchful care, bound by the cord of a mother’s love, the little winged arrow on its flight must have reached Some one,—Somewhere.      (p. 204, paragraph 2)
  “And now, Abbie, thinking of what the girl had just read [that love is like a hammer], to her, returned thoughtfull [sic], ‘You can’t describe love, Kathie and you can’t define it.  Only it goes with you all your life.  I think that love is more like a light that you carry.  At first childish happiness keeps it lighted and after that romance.  Then motherhood lights it and then duty . . . and maybe after that sorrow.  You wouldn’t think that sorrow could be a light would you, dearie?  But it can.  And then after that, service lights it.  Yes. . . .  I think that is what love is to a woman . . . a lantern in her hand.”    (p. 255-56, the paragraph between)
  When asked what she was thinking by a granddaughter, she said, "'That your life is like a field-glass, Laura.  When you look into the one end, the landscape is dwarfed and far away,—when you look into the other, it looms large as though it were near at hand.  Things that happened seventy years ago seem like yesterday.  But, when I was a girl, eighty years seemed too remote to contemplate.  And now, it has passed.  The story is written.’”    (p. 278, paragraph 6)
    

December
|The Boy in the Striped Pajamas.  John Boyne
This is the story of Bruno, a 9-year-old boy living in Berlin during WWII until his father, a commander in the Nazi army, moves the family to a house near a prison camp.  Bruno approaches the barbed wire fence and becomes friends with one of the boys on the other side.  Good story.  Very poignant.  I saw the movie before I finished the book.  The movie was excellent, though it doesn’t exactly follow all the details in the book.  Both are worth the time to read/see.


Love & Respect. The Love She Most Desires. The Respect He Desperately Needs.  Emerson Eggerichs
His pretense is that a wife must give her husband unconditional respect in order for him to give her unconditional love.  Interesting book, not sure how I feel about it or whether I agree. 
  What a husband should give (do for) his wife (acronym COUPLE): closeness, openness, understanding, peacemaking, loyalty, and esteem
  What a wife should see (appreciate) in her husband (acronym CHAIRS): conquest, hierarchy, authority, insight, relationship, sexuality.


White Orchids.  Grace Livingston Hill  
Camilla, a young woman of little means but high ideals, meets Jeffrey, a young man of great means and kindness.  They like each other but Camilla believes a relationship wouldn’t work out because they are of different worlds -- both by income and by faith in God.  Very old-fashioned but I liked it.  Written in 1935.


Merle’s Door.  Lessons from a Freethinking Dog.  Ted Kerasote 
I LOVE this book!  It is wonderful.  A lot about Merle (who, in some ways, has Airedale-like personality and traits) and a little about dog behavior.  I suppose some folks say “talking” for your dog is anthropomorphic, but I could understand exactly how Ted understood Merle because I believe I also understand (& understood) our Airedales.

nm