For Fans

For anyone wondering impatiently when I’ll be posting a new review, I’m afraid I’m going to disappoint. I’ve decided to let this blog go (though I’ll still keep it available on the internet) and stick with my personal blog, posting an eclectic mishmash of book reviews, quotes, pictures of the kids, spiritual journaling, and little daily life stuff. Maybe someday, when I’m not homeschooling anymore, I’ll come back to a regular public blog life.

Booking Through Thursday: Bedside

What books do you have next to your bed right now? How about other places in the house? What are you reading?

By my bedside:

• Sunday Missal
• Diary of Saint Maria Faustina Kowalska
• Adam and Eve and Pinch Me (Ruth Rendell)
• The Complete Book of Herbs

Currently reading, slowly and sporadically:

• Acedia and Me (Kathleen Norris)
• Caddie Woodlawn (Carol Ryrie Brink)
• The Naked Now (Richard Rohr)
• Diary of Saint Maria Faustina Kowalska

Just finished reading (and wow, what a book!):

• Lit: A Memoir (Mary Karr)

Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi

Though I grew up with Astérix et Obélix, Tintin, and Les Schtroumpfs, I never thought of expanding my graphic novel horizons as an adult. In April my son started writing his own graphic novel for Script Frenzy, and I thought, Hmmm, that’s an interesting medium. That prompted me to choose a session at the Festival of Faith and Writing led by Gene Yang, a Catholic graphic novelist who is especially known for American Born Chinese. Among Yang’s recommendations for adults who think graphic novels are childish was Persepolis: The Story of a Childhood by Marjane Satrapi.

Persepolis recounts Satraphi’s childhood years growing up in turbulent times in Iran. I learned a lot about the politics in Iran during that time period and how it affected people. Satrapi writes in a way that one can relate to her and her family while still being introduced to a different culture. It is a very serious book with some pretty heavy parts, some language, and emotional intensity, definitely geared for older children, yet I would highly recommend it for anyone interested in world history, politics, or foreign cultures.

And the List Grows

Adding to my TBR list as a result of the Festival (asterisks indicate books acquired this past weekend):

• American-Born Chinese (Yang)
• Persepolis (Satrapi)
• Castle Waiting (Medley)
• Maus (Spiegelman)
• A Syllable of Water
• Mennonite in a Little Black Dress (Janzen)
• Quaker Summer (Lisa Samson)
• Girlfriend in a Coma (Coupland)
• The Road (McCarthy)
• White Noise (DeLillo)
• The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane (DiCamillo)
• Art and Fear (Bayles)
• Bird by Bird (Lamott)
• *The Everlasting Man (Chesterton)
• *O Me of Little Faith (Boyett)
• *The True Confessions of Charlotte Doyle (Avi)
• *Orthodoxy (Chesterton)
• *Peace Shall Destroy Many (Wiebe)
• *Accompanied by Angels (Shaw)
• *The Undertaking (Lynch)
• *Apparition & Late Fictions (Lynch)
• *The Rosary Comic Book (Yang)

Day 3 at the Festival of Faith & Writing

Day 3 at the Festival of Faith & Writing 2010

1. “The End of the World As We Know It”: The Apocalyptic in Contemporary North American Fiction, presented by Mary McCampbell.

• We long for stories to make sense: an apocalyptic longing
• To read: The Road by McCarthy, White Noise by DeLillo, and Girlfriend in a Coma by Douglas Coupland.

2. Luci Shaw signing. Ran across campus to get to her signing, only to discover her signing location had been changed to the building I had come from. Ran back, got the signature, grabbed a coffee, then ran to the other end of the campus for the next session. (When I say “ran,” I actually mean walked very briskly the first time, not so briskly the second time, and rather slowly the third time…)

3. “The Shadow of My Hand on the Paper: Writing and Living a Life” with Parker Palmer.

• Peter DeVries: “I love being a writer; I just hate the paperwork.”
• Palmer’s father: “Today’s peacock is tomorrow’s feather duster.”
• I need paradox in order to stay sane about myself and about the world: both/and rather than either/or.
• If you can’t write a book, write a lot of paragraphs. If you can’t write paragraphs, write a lot of lines. If you can’t write lines, write with your own life, which is far more important anyway than a book.

4. Parker Palmer signing

5. “Writing with a Poet’s Eye: Rhoda Janzen and Thomas Lynch in Conversation.” Hmmm, maybe I should try some poetry…

6. Gene Yang signing

7. Shop and Lunch. I couldn’t find André or my parents who were in the same building, and they couldn’t find me, so I ended up eating a sandwich on my own and looking at more books.

8. “Why Comics?” by Gene Luen Yang.

• Choosing books to read is like Yang’s parents’ advice about friends: “Be friends with all, but in choosing your closest friends, you’re choosing who you are.”
• Three reasons why writing comics is awesome: no budget (as opposed to movies), no editor (unless you want one), and you don’t even have to draw well!

9. “Writing for the Change You Wish to See in the World” with Lisa Samson.

• #1 thing you need to write fiction with social justice themes is to live it.
• “Fiction takes an issue and gives it a face and a voice.”
• Bishop Oscar Romero: “When I feed the poor, they call me a saint. When I ask why they are poor, they call me a communist.”

10. Film: “As We Forgive”—two views of forgiveness and reconciliation between killers and survivors of the Rwandan genocide. Powerful.

11. Supper at cousin Kris’. Yummy tacos, warm welcome from kitties Scout and Gus, good talks about Canada, illness & death, and her classroom.

Saturday Review

Semicolon hosts the Saturday Review of Books. Enjoy browsing!

“What refuge is there for a victim who is oppressed with the feeling that there are a thousand new books he ought to read, while life is only long enough for him to attempt a hundred?” “~Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr.

Day 2 at the Festival of Faith & Writing

Day 2 of the Festival of Faith & Writing 2010

1. “Ancient Christian Spirituality: Meditation and Inspiration for the Modern Writer and Reader” with three presenters. Each one talked about how reading ancient Christians helped to change their outlook and their writing.

• “Spontaneous prayer works until you no longer have words to pray.” (Crosby)
• “Spiritual discipline: Doing repeatedly things you don’t necessarily want to do, but which will increase your ability to live as God intended.” (Taylor)
• The early Christians and Celtic Christians were NOT seeker-friendly. (Taylor)

2. “Poet and Pastor on Patmos” presented by Eugene Peterson.

• He became a pastor-writer like a dog follows scents: “intently haphazardly.”
• (Quoting from someone else?) “Writing a book is like building a chicken coop in a high wind.”

3. “Why Writers Write: Questions and Answers on the Craft of Writing” with Kate DiCamillo. She is a lot of fun!

• “It is not easy to do this and it is a privilege.”
• “I work on the polishing. I sense the truth out of the corner of my eye.”

4. Got a book for Nicole signed by Kate DiCamillo.

5. Attended a small forum during lunch on memoir writing.

6. Got bored in the next seminar, so went book shopping instead. Got a free book, entered my name in a draw, and chatted with some new young writers.

7. “Apparition: Finding Grace in the Godawful” presented by Thomas Lynch. Lynch is a funeral director who writes novels, short stories, and poetry. He read from one of his short stories and had the whole audience riveted: laughing, clapping, crying. Note to self: Buy his book: Apparition and Late Fictions.

8. Listened to a spoken and sung poetry performance. Calvin’s Capella choir sang some poems put to music, interspersed with poets reading their work: Luci Shaw, Kazim Ali, and others.

9. Supper with Uncle Tom & Aunt Jan and cousin Kristin, then attempt to capture some of the day in a blog post before bed.

Day 1 at the Festival of Faith & Writing

Day 1 Notes from the Festival of Faith & Writing 2010

1. Registration. Meet up with Luke’s cousin, Maria.

2. Buy books. Just in case I can get them signed by the author. Besides, who ever heard of walking around at a conference with an empty bag? One needs to feel loaded down and exhausted all day.

3. Attend a book reading by a husband & wife team who write suspense novels based considerably on their experiences as a lawyer and a CIA agent in drug enforcement.

4. Listen to Scott Cairns at the plenary session. The full hour talk was worthy of transcription, so I’m looking forward to listening to the recording when it comes out. The subject was “Embodied Faith”: wonderful perspectives on prayer, salvation, the Church as Body of Christ, Eastern Orthodoxy, and I think there was something about writing there too. “The writing vocation as a way to knowing…”

5. Attend a play by the name of Backborn, written by Romanian playwright András Visky. André and I both enjoyed it, though it was extremely difficult to understand. Afterwards we got to hear Visky talk about the play and why he writes in the way he does. The play was done in fractured scenes, non-chronologically, sometimes in the present, sometimes in a dream, sometimes in memory. It dealt with a concentration camp survivor, his loss of identity, and what Visky calls the “barracks” mentality—living in prison when exteriorly one is free. Visky himself lived five years, from the ages of 1 through 6, in a Communist prison camp with his father, so he writes his plays from his own and from his parents’ experiences.

6. Go to a session presented by Scott Russell Sanders on “The Essay as a Way of Discovery.” Once again reinforcing the theme of writing in order to understand. Since the writing I do so far is blogging and spiritual journalling, this idea appeals to me—it seems approachable and doable.

7. Stand in line to get a book signed by Avi for Tony.

8. Supper with Grandma and Uncle Jim & Aunt Kathy.

9. Back to our lodgings to unpack, take turns on the internet cable to check our emails and update blogs, then crash before tomorrow which looks to be a much fuller day than today.

Friday Finds

Friday Finds is hosted by Miz B at Should Be Reading. Take a look at what other readers have found this week.

– 1 –

Alas, Babylon
by Pat Frank

Reviewed by Belinda at Upsidedown B:

First written in 1959 about nuclear war, I thought it would be outdated. I mean, we know so much more now, right? And the Cold War is over, isn’t it? This was a great, great read. I loved the hero. I loved the writing. I loved the story. I also really loved the way it ended on a note of hope. Read it.

– 2 –

Far North
by Marcel Theroux

Recommended by Susan Wise Bauer:

LOVED this. Finished it thinking: I wish I could plot like that… And the narrative voice is one of the most accomplished I’ve read for a long time.

– 3 –

Jesus-Shock
by Peter Kreeft

Recommended by Jennifer at Conversion Diary:

I’ve started reading Jesus-Shock by Peter Kreeft, and it’s fantastic.How fantastic? I had just started it on Day 4 of The Stomach Bug O’ Doom, when things got really bad…

(You’ll have to read the rest at her blog!)

WWW Wednesday

WWW Wednesdays is a meme from Should Be Reading. To play along, just answer the following three questions…

• What are you currently reading?
• What did you recently finish reading?
• What do you think you’ll read next?

What am I currently reading?

• Maigret se défend (Georges Simenon): I picked up a tome containing several Maigret mysteries, and having once started and realizing how fabulous they are to read in French, I can’t put them down!
• Real Sex: The Naked Truth about Chastity (Lauren Winner): Fantastic!
• Through a Screen Darkly: Looking Closer at Beauty, Truth, and Evil in the Movies (Jeffrey Overstreet): Another great book, but I keep getting sidetracked by other reading. My goal is to finish it this week.

What did I recently finish reading?

• Maigret et le fantôme (Georges Simenon)
• From Doon with Death (Ruth Rendell)
• Crispin: The Cross of Lead (Avi)

What do I think I’ll read next?

• La Patience de Maigret (Georges Simenon)
• Padre Pio: the True Story (Bernard Ruffin)

Kids’ Picks

Wanting to read books by some of the speakers at the upcoming Festival of Faith & Writing, I picked up a stack of books from the library by Avi. I quite enjoyed his Newbery Award book Crispin: The Cross of Lead, set in medieval England, and immediately passed it on to my 11-year old son, Tony. Within a week, he had not only read the book, but also read its sequel Crispin: At the Edge of the World, as well as Avi’s The Book Without Words, Windcatcher, and The Seer of Shadows. He has put many more of Avi’s books on our library hold list.

Of the second Crispin book, Tony warns that there’s a very sad part, but it’s still just as good as the first book and he can’t wait for the third one to come out. Reading Windcatcher makes him want to get his own little sailboat and learn to sail. Tony reported to me after reading The Seer of Shadows:

“There’s a word to describe it… ummmm, let me think what it is… Eerie! That’s it! It’s very eerie. And you can even see that from the picture on the cover which is strange and blurry.”

Avi is a prolific writer in a multitude of genres. You can see his whole list of books at his website.

Sunday Reflection

Salvation in Christ is being adopted (baptism), made members of a people, Israel, and the church. We really believe that if we were not part of this people we could not be saved. So when the church has opinions about how you spend your money, how you have sex, how you vote, this is salvation. You are not simply being saved from personal greed or licentiousness, you are thereby being made a member of God’s people.

~ William Willimon and Stanley Hauerwas

Saturday Review

Semicolon hosts the Saturday Review of Books. Enjoy browsing!

“Before going to bed read something exquisite and worth remembering, of which you will be thinking when overcome by sleep, and for which you will ask yourself again when you wake.”~Erasmus

Friday Finds

Friday Finds is hosted by Miz B at Should Be Reading. Take a look at what other readers have found this week.

– 1 –

The Place of the Lion
by Charles Williams

Reviewed by Janet at Across the Page:

I loved it because its imaginative truth is very powerful, and it got under my skin. It has the multifacetedness of myth — you catch a shimmer of meaning here and there, and the shimmers are part of a harmonious whole, but the complete diamond is difficult to comprehend. I would agree with the descriptor “strange” which is often applied to this tale, but I would add “satisfyingly complex” because it forced me to slow down and ponder so many things. It raised my awareness of other dimensions of existence than world we touch and see, deepened my understanding of some aspects of my faith, and got me thinking about what my own “ruling principle” might be.

– 2 –

Spider Sparrow
by Dick King-Smith

Reviewed by Laura at Lines… in Pleasant Places

After reading Dick King-Smith’s novel, Spider Sparrow, I am mystified as to how I should classify it. I suppose it is a children’s book. Amazon describes it as being for children ages 9 to 12. Dick King-Smith writes books for children. However, as with any well-written book with a really good story (likeThe Book Thief, The Chronicles of Narnia, The Giver, etc.) this book is great reading for any age person.

– 3 –

Twisted Wing
by Ruth Newman

Reviewed by Fleur Fisher Reads

The opening was striking. A university student murdered in her own room and another student catatonic beside her. You might expect the story then to follow the police investigation. But if you did you’d be wrong. This book takes two different, and much more interesting paths… Twisted Wing is very well written, perfectly paced and a genuine page turner. The plot twists – and there are many – are startling and very well handled… And the ending is very clever. All in all this is a very polished debut.

O’Connor on Bad Religious Fiction

I found this Flannery O’Connor quote on Miscellanies and couldn’t resist reposting it here. That’s twice now I’ve posted an O’Connor quote and I still have not read any of her stories. But these quotes sure make me want to write something profound!

Flannery O’Connor writes in Mystery and Manners:

“Ever since there have been such things as novels, the world has been flooded with bad fiction for which the religious impulse has been responsible. The sorry religious novel comes about when the writer supposes that because of his belief, he is somehow dispensed from the obligation to penetrate concrete reality. He will think that the eyes of the Church or of the Bible or of his particular theology have already done the seeing for him, and that his business is to rearrange this essential vision into satisfying patterns, getting himself as little dirty in the process as possible. His feeling about this may have been made more definite by one of those Manichean-type theologies which sees the natural world as unworthy of penetration. But the real novelist, the one with an instinct for what he is about, knows that he cannot approach the infinite directly, that he must penetrate the natural human world as it is.”