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Village School

by “Miss Read,” Mrs. Dora Jessie Saint, 1955

What a sweet, sweet book! Transports you to an English village in about the 1930s. It’s precious – the people, the cottages, the school, the children. She takes you through the 3 terms of school: Christmas Term, Spring Term, Summer Term. She teaches the older kids and another lady teaches the infants. What a wonderful time – so much appreciation for nature. Just taking the little ones outside. Beautiful and fun times. They have “dinner” delivered every day and they eat together. In the winter, it’s cold, they have to light the stove, and the housekeeper, Mrs. Pringle, complains. They go ice skating on a pond. The young infants’ teacher, Miss Gray, falls in love with the Choir Director, Mr. Annett, and they are to be married. The children pick out a beautiful piece of crockery for a wedding gift, with Miss Read’s help; “a china biscuit barrel, sprigged with wild flowers. It was useful, it was very pretty and it was exactly the right price.”

This was an innocent trip to rural England in the 1930s. Precious and beautiful!

(more…) “Village School”

The 36-Hour Day

“A Family Guide for People Who Have Alzheimer Disease, Other Dementias, and Memory Loss,” by Nancy L. Mace, MA, and Peter V. Rabins, MD, MPH, 2017

An easy-to-read guide, covering everything, on how to care for someone with dementia. Reading it makes me realize that Mom is not even close to “there” yet. I would say she has “Mild Cognitive Impairment” now. If it worsens into dementia, then major decisions will need to be made. Preferable for her to remain in her home as long as possible. Change is not good. When can she no longer drive? When should she no longer be living alone?

The way the book is organized didn’t seem right – I thought Chapter 17, Preventing and Delaying Cognitive Decline, should have been Chapter 1. The first 16 chapters go in-depth on how to deal with someone with dementia. Mainly, be loving and caring and patient. Get help so you can remain loving and caring and patient. Don’t care about being right. The person’s brain is diseased; they cannot help many of their behaviors.

The style was conversational so you can really fly through the chapters. There is a lot of info packed into each page but so much doesn’t apply to us right now. I need to look at the Larimer County Office on Aging, because the main things we need to watch for are when she can no longer drive and when she can no longer live alone – see what kind of options they have for “aging in place” so she can stay in her home safely. We also need to see what her Long Term Care Insurance covers.

(more…) “The 36-Hour Day”

Johnny Tremain: A Story of Boston in Revolt

by Esther Forbes, 1943

What a wonderful book. I loved being with Johnny Tremain in Boston in the 1770s. It was on the Book-a-Day calendar from Christie: “For fans of The Simpsons: Can you recall what novel about the American Revolution captivated that not-so-eager reader Bart? ANSWER: Esther Forbes’s novel of revolutionary-era Boston, Johnny Tremain, which won the Newbery Medal in 1944.”

The main character, Johnny Tremain, is a 14-year-old boy orphaned in Boston, apprenticing as a silversmith. He burns his hand with molten silver, due to the deceit of a fellow apprentice, Dove. Johnny has to strike out on his own and we experience his loneliness and despair, but he rises above it and finds a hope and a future. He meets Rab, a kind and wise boy a couple of years older than Johnny. Rab befriends Johnny and hires him to deliver papers. Johnny learns to love and ride horses, in particular, Goblin, a horse nobody but he could ride. He delivers the Boston Observer to homes and businesses. He also delivers messages and news to the likes of Paul Revere, John Hancock, Samuel Adams, and others. The Revolution begins. Rab leaves Boston first in order to fight in the battle of Lexington, the very first battle of the war. Unfortunately, the British outmanned and outgunned them in the first battle and Rab is hit with many bullets before he could even shoot his gun. Johnny vows to join the fight as soon as Dr. Warren fixes his burnt and twisted hand so that he can hold a gun…Fantastic book. Takes you into the time of the Revolution. It is considered children’s literature, but it is 300 pages long and the language, characters, and plot seem like an adult book to me.

(more…) “Johnny Tremain: A Story of Boston in Revolt”

Brave New World

by Aldous Huxley, 1932

I didn’t read this, but Wayne did, twice; once in high school and then, again, just recently. He said not to bother with it, but there are warnings for us. They used genetic engineering focusing on cognitive abilities, to mass-produce humans in test-tubes, some created to be slaves, others higher caste. Alphas will run things and gammas will dig ditches. 21st Century equivalent will be genetic modification of embryos/fetus’. They considered the idea of family to be obscene. The goal was homogeneity – eliminate individuality. They condition behaviors via Pavlovian conditioning and hypnotic suggestion all through youth, for example: consumption is good; you belong to everybody; families are obscene, gross, icky; drugs are good; we are better than gammas but not as good as alphas, etc. (maintaining a functional prejudice concerning castes). Humans are kept in line via distractions: entertainment, drugs, sex and recreation. Stability, via conformity, is the ultimate goal. Everybody is “satisfied” and happy. No unmet desires (either met via social engineering above, or stamped out by same.) Means no passions either. No individuality, or God.

In our world today (America), our children are indoctrinated into consumerism from their earliest ages. We are also a nation of distraction – “entertain me” is our daily bread. So, good warnings for us. “The Herd” – we are managed, like a herd, for the benefit of the management – the people who own us.

Disappointment River:

Finding and losing the Northwest Passage

by Brian Castner, 2018

Well-written book. I almost gave up on it because of the many French and Indian words and names I couldn’t pronounce, but I’m glad I stuck with it. He takes you on the Mackenzie River (the Deh Cho River) through Canada to the Arctic Ocean; first with Alexander Mackenzie and his crew in the 1780’s, and then with himself and 4 different guys. What a hard journey, then and now. It’s a miracle Alexander Mackenzie didn’t lose a single person, just a canoe and some supplies on one of the many portages they had to take to avoid rapids. And Brian and his fellows experienced the same “plagues of the Deh Cho:” terrible lightning, rain storms, wind, icy cold, unbearable heat and bugs, especially mosquitoes and bulldogs. In Fort Providence, the first town Brian and his first partner, David, reached, they didn’t secure their canoe and supplies. During the night, drunk Indians vandalized and stole or ruined most of their supplies. Brian contacted the outfitter (the one in Fort Smith who had told him not to worry), and that outfitter drove a new stove up to Brian to replace the one stolen.

(more…) “Disappointment River:”

Voices of the Colorado Trail

by David W. Fanning, 2017 (rawahranger.com)

David Fanning is a photographer who posts his photos on Next Door. They are excellent! Many are of owls and other birds. He lives in the Sheely Addition which is near Red Fox Meadows. He was asked if he ever considered writing a bird book and he answered with his favorite bird books, Sibley being one, and then said he has written a book called “Voices of the Colorado Trail.” I got it from the library. It’s a marvelous book! He includes short descriptions, very interesting descriptions, of each segment of the Colorado Trail, photos, and interviews with hikers along the way. Loved this book! He writes some poetry, and here’s one I love:

Trail Trash

Every ounce of the trash

you so casually tossed in the bushes

irritates me as I trudge up the pass

this morning, thinking of punishment.

Hanging is too good for you.

I would toss you off a cliff,

make you hang by your fingernails

over the chasm

until you cry out how finally

you understand the purpose

of poetry and beauty in the world.

Then, I would give you another chance.

He includes a picture of the trail trash he collected.

(more…) “Voices of the Colorado Trail”

The Four Winds

by Kristin Hannah, 2021

Historical fiction covering the dust bowl, the depression, and the plight of Okies in California. Elsa is blasted by one traumatic event after another. She’s an unwanted oldest daughter of a wealthy family in Texas. She gets pregnant by an Italian boy, Rafe, who is forced to marry her. His mother and father, Rose and Tony, grow to love Elsa, but Rafe leaves her and their two children when the dust storms begin. When youngest child, Ant, gets dust pneumonia, Elsa takes him and her daughter, beautiful Loreda, to California. There they live in a homeless camp, become migrant workers, survive a flood, fall in love with Jack, and then Elsa is shot to death in the middle of a strike against the growers.

(more…) “The Four Winds”

Mrs. Pollifax and the Lion Killer

by Dorothy Gilman, 1996

Great characters, interesting setting and story. Mrs. Pollifax accompanies young Kadi back to the African country of Ubangiba, to help the young prince, Kadi’s childhood friend. Someone dressed as a lion is killing people. Rumors are it is the young prince, which is destroying the trust he needs from his people to right all the wrongs that have happened in his country under two evil dictators. Mrs. Pollifax meets Moses, a large man with scars on his face. She buys a bicycle from him. She also buys a gun in the black market, to give to Kadi to protect herself. She meets Sharma, a trusted witch doctor, who gives her cryptic information about there are watchers and there are watchers. Kadi is attacked by the lion killer, then, once she recovers from her injuries, she disappears from a camping trip. Mrs. Pollifax is attacked by the lion killer after someone else thought to be the lion killer was caught and imprisoned. Mrs. Pollifax, with her self-defense skills, hurts him as he is attacking her, and the real Lion Killer ends up being Joseph, the prince’s right-hand man. So now all is well in Ubangiba. Moses was the watcher who was watching and protecting Kadi and Mrs. Pollifax. He hid Kadi away to protect her and draw out the real Lion Killer. Fun book, good escape. Found this book in a Little Free Library.

The King of the Rainy Country

by Nicolas Freeling, 1965

This was a Christie book-of-the-day calendar recommendation. I liked it but it mentioned many things, people, ideas, and places I had never heard of, I would have spent too much time looking things up. I didn’t look anything up so I only understood enough to keep up.

It was about a very rich man disappearing and is told from the perspective of the police detective hired to find him. It was set in Europe: Amsterdam, Germany, Austrian ski resorts, Spain. The rich man and a young German girl are eventually found and they have committed suicide. Then, the rich man’s wife tries to kill the police detective and then shoots herself. Maybe if I had understood even one-half of the many different things he wrote about, it would have been better.

(more…) “The King of the Rainy Country”

The Enchanted April

by Elizabeth Von Arnim, 1922

This book was recommended on the “Page-a-Day” book calendar Christie gave me. I loved it. It was a wonderful escape to Italy in the 1920s. Four English ladies, strangers to one another, share an old castle on the coast of Italy near Genoa for the month of April. Each one is escaping the cold, dark, wet of England, but also something emotionally cold, dark, and wet. They go from closed off and suspicious to happy and loving. I loved the descriptions of the flowers, trees, sea, sun, castle and the rooms inside the castle, the town (Castagneta), the people, the setting, the moon, everything. And I loved how each woman changed and found love.

(more…) “The Enchanted April”

Reimagining Capitalism in a World on Fire

by Rebecca Henderson, 2020

I heard about this book from an interview with the author on NPR. She was talking about Walmart and how it changed practices after Hurricane Katrina and became more caring about the environment and their employees, but they did it almost secretly because they didn’t want people to think they would raise prices.

Author is a professor at Harvard University and teaches a course called Reimagining Capitalism. If capitalism is to survive, five things must happen:

  1. Creating shared value by caring about the environment.
  2. Building the Purpose-Driven Organization by caring about their employees.
  3. Rewiring Finance by caring about the long-term rather than the short-term.
  4. Building Cooperation in order to make necessary changes all along the supply chains (cocoa, Nike, tea, palm oil).
  5. Rebuilding Our Institutions and Fixing Our Governments

Change is hard but necessary if capitalism (and our world) are to survive. Change comes when ‘Business’ goes from caring only about profits in the short term to caring about all the costs (environmental and human) and working to maximize benefits for all. Government must be free and fair (no more gerrymandering and corruption). People must be involved by caring, voting, taking action, demanding change.

I loved the real-life examples she gave, especially Nike, Walmart, and the palm oil business.

(more…) “Reimagining Capitalism in a World on Fire”

The Reason for God

Belief in an Age of Skepticism, by Timothy Keller, 2008

Another excellent book by Tim Keller. This one explains logically, thoroughly, and beautifully how the God of the Bible exists and is real. In Part 1: The Leap of Doubt, the arguments against God are presented and examined. Chapter titles are:

  1. There Can’t Be Just One True Religion
  2. How Could a Good God Allow Suffering?
  3. Christianity Is a Straitjacket
  4. The Church is Responsible for So Much Injustice
  5. How Can a Loving God Send People to Hell?
  6. Science Has Disproved Christianity
  7. You Can’t Take the Bible Literally

In Part 2: The Reasons for Faith, he examines all the arguments for God. Chapter titles are:

  1. The Clues of God
  2. The Knowledge of God
  3. The Problem of Sin
  4. Religion and the Gospel
  5. The (True) Story of the Cross
  6. The Reality of the Resurrection
  7. The Dance of God

Every page of this book is full of logic and wisdom. Unbelief boils down to human arrogance and pride, trying to run our own lives, rejecting God-our Maker, Defender, Redeemer, and Friend–not realizing that as we reject God, we are worshiping something else that will ultimately disappoint us.

(more…) “The Reason for God”

The God of Small Things

by Arundhati Roy, 1997

Excellent writer but such a tragic tale, and no redemption in the end. Seven year-old twins (“two-egg twins”) and their beautiful mother, Ammu, live with their Uncle Chacko, their grandaunt Baby Kochamma, and their grandmother, Mammachi, in their beautiful home and Paradise Pickle factory by the river in Ayemenem, India. Something very, very tragic happens but you don’t know exactly what, only that it kills their beloved cousin from London, Sophie Mol, and their beloved friend and mother’s lover, Velutha. Velutha is a handsome, talented, loving, kind young man who is a father the children need and he and Ammu fall in love. The problem is, he is a Paravan, an untouchable.

(more…) “The God of Small Things”

Forgotten God

Reversing our tragic neglect of the Holy Spirit

by Francis Chan with Danae Yakoski, 2009

Good book about how we have ignored the Holy Spirit in our American churches and as a result, it’s become irrelevant and is dying. We’ve become consumers of religion an hour or two a week, looking for the best entertainment. Chapter One: “I’ve Got Jesus. Why do I need the Spirit?” Chapter Two: “What Are You Afraid Of?” Chapter Three: “Theology of the Holy Spirit 101.” Chapter Four: “Why Do You Want Him?” Chapter Five: “A Real Relationship.” Chapter Six: “Forget About His Will for Your Life!” Chapter Seven: “Supernatural Church.”

Here are some quotes:

(more…) “Forgotten God”

Pigeon Pie

by Nancy Mitford, 1940

I hope that anybody who is kind enough to read it will remember that it was written before Christmas 1939. Published on 6th May 1940 it was an early and unimportant casualty of the real war which was then beginning.

NANCY MITFORD

Paris, 1951

from the dedication page

Fun little mystery set in London at the start of WWII. Lady Sophia, a ditsy, beautiful young lady, eventually saves England by getting word out to the right person about the German spies who kidnapped Sir Ivor King, the beloved King of Song, and Sophia’s beloved French bulldog, Milly. The German spies are caught in the nick of time.

There were English people and phrases which I didn’t understand; like the Blossom, but I just kept reading it anyway. This was a book recommended on the Christie Calendar for 2021. Fun diversion – I love the British!

Fly Girls

by Keith O’Brien, 2018

Suspenseful non-fiction about 5 women who flew airplanes in the 1920s and 1930s. They battled against much prejudice but held fast to their dreams. The only one I’d heard about, of course, was Amelia Earhart. But there were 4 other women who should have been household names as well: Frances Grayson, Ruth Elder, Ruth Nichols, and Louise Thaden. Also learned about the history of flying in general in America.

(more…) “Fly Girls”

Little Fires Everywhere

by Celeste Ng, 2017

Interesting and well-written novel, although I didn’t like the setting, the characters, or the plot. Set in Shaker Heights, Ohio, an affluent community, where they planned everything down to the last detail (grassy areas, trees, schools, parks, where trash cans are kept, where rental homes are built, etc.) This is an actual community and the author grew up there. There are two families involved. One is the affluent Richardson’s with 4 children: Trip, Moody, Lexy, and Izzy. The other is the Warren’s; Mom, Mia, is an artist/photographer and single-parent to Pearl, a high-school aged daughter who has moved around the country continually with her artist mom. Mia’s photography is more than just photography; she manipulates the photos by painstakingly cutting out certain parts and arranging certain things. Mia decides she and Pearl will stay in Shaker Heights and Pearl becomes involved with the Richardson’s. Izzy, the youngest, is a troubled child who finds the hope and love she needs from Mia, since her own mother, Elena, is continually disappointed in her. There are lots of secrets in Mia’s life and Elena Richardson, a reporter for the local paper, eventually finds them all out and kicks Mia and Pearl out of her rental home. The little fires everywhere comes from parting advice Mia gives to Izzy, who then starts a fire on the bed of each of her siblings and burns the Richardson’s home down. The book is full of high-school angst: he/she loves me, he/she loves me not, teenagers deciding to have sex (Lexie and her boyfriend, Trip and Pearl), getting pregnant (Lexie), having an abortion (Lexie), etc. There is also a couple who want to adopt a baby girl who was left at a fire station. Mia finds out the baby is her Chinese friend’s (Bebe,) and Bebe wants her back. There is a trial and a verdict and an eventual kidnapping.

(more…) “Little Fires Everywhere”

Salmon Fishing in the Yemen

by Paul Torday, 2007

Entertaining and educational novel about a Sheikh from the Yemen who loves fly fishing for salmon and decides to try and introduce salmon fishing in the Yemen. Money is no object. He hires a British fisheries scientist, Dr. Alfred Jones, who is at first completely against the idea. (Of course!) Harriet, a property-management agent who works for the Sheikh, meets with Dr. Jones and he begins to believe that this crazy idea might possibly work, and if it doesn’t, at least they’d learn a lot along the way. He agrees to try and we get to come along for the ride. Along the way, we travel to Scotland and fly fish for salmon at the Sheikh’s estate in Scotland. Then, we travel to the Sheikh’s estate in the highlands of the Yemen. Beautiful places, delicious food, and a fascinating project–will it work? The Sheikh is kind, calm, peaceful, devout. There are side stories: Dr. Jones’s marriage to unkind, unloving, and cold Mary; Harriet’s fiance, a British Marine serving in Iraq; Al Qaeda attempting to assassinate the Sheikh; and the politics of Britain through the British Prime Minister (Jay Vent) and his press secretary (Peter Maxwell).

Loved the characters of Dr. Jones, Harriet, and the Sheikh. There is a movie made of this book. I would like to see the beautiful settings described in this book.

(more…) “Salmon Fishing in the Yemen”

The Vanishing Half

by Brit Bennett, 2020

Interesting novel, interesting premise: twin light-skinned black girls (Desiree and Stella) go their separate ways, one to live as a white woman (Stella), the other remains a black woman (Desiree). Desiree is definitely the more likable character. She ends up with a daughter (Jude) black as coal and returns with her to her mother and home in Mallard after leaving her abusive husband. She is loving and loyal and misses her twin. She has a very loving second relationship with Early, a kind man who helps her try and locate Stella, unsuccessfully.

Jude moves to Los Angeles and goes to college on a track scholarship. She meet and falls in love with Reese (who used to be Therese). He is a girl trying to become a boy and the love between them is very sweet and tender but, of course, secretive. Jude cannot tell her Mom (Desiree). While working for a caterer at a party in Beverly Hills, Jude sees Stella, her Mom’s long-lost twin, and meets Stella’s daughter, Kennedy. The secret comes out eventually that Stella is black, but only between Stella and Kennedy. Stella keeps this secret from her white husband and everyone else except for Kennedy, Jude, Desiree, and Early. She lives a life full of lies.

I guess we all have secrets and secrets really keep us from living life to the full. Thank you, Jesus, that you came that we may have life and have it to the full. Without you, life is dark, messed up, secretive, full of lies, scary. With You, we have nothing to fear. You are with us even if the world rejects us. But what are we if we gain the whole world but lose our soul. You give us hope and life and light and truth.

There is no God in this book. No real hope. There is human love but if that’s all we have, that’s a sorry existence.

The Book of Eels

by Patrick Svensson, 2019, translated from the Swedish by Agnes Broome 2020

Surprising that a book about eels would be so interesting, but it was! Every other chapter is his personal experience fishing for eels with his Dad in Sweden. I liked those chapters the best. He loved fishing for eels with his Dad. What a gift to have had a Dad like that. His Dad worked as a tar layer for roads in Sweden; he was very strong and worked very hard, but breathing in the hot tar for so many years eventually caused the cancer that killed him. His Dad loved to eat eel.

The other chapters gave historical and scientific information about eels. We know after 20 years of painstaking research by a Danish guy that the eels breed in the Sargasso Sea but we have never seen an eel, alive or dead, in the Sargasso Sea! The eels are dying out (we think) and we can’t breed them in captivity. The Japanese have tried.

This book was one of the books recommended by Fredrik Backman in his acknowledgements of the book, Anxious People.

(more…) “The Book of Eels”