Blog

Walking with God through Pain and Suffering

by Timothy Keller, 2013

The definitive book on pain and suffering and God. Why suffering exists (why does God allow evil), the different types of suffering, suffering in history, how to suffer, where is God in the suffering. It used to be that people did not find suffering such a shock or something to be avoided. Suffering was a part of life; people did not question it. In our modern world, we look at suffering as something to be avoided at all costs and that creates problems; addictions, idolatry, lack of belief and faith in God.

Suffering cannot be avoided this side of heaven but you can be sure that God is with you; cling to Him, don’t let go of Him. He is working out something magnificently beautiful, meaningful, and rich beyond our wildest imagination through our suffering. Suffering is not His intent, nor did He create it or cause it, but He is with you in it. He, alone, is the answer. Nothing in this world will ultimately cure or satisfy. Only Him.

The Bible never promises a life free from suffering (until heaven) but it does promise God with us. Jesus, the ultimate innocent sufferer, is the proof. No one suffered more than He did in enduring the punishment, the wrath of God, that we deserved for our sin. And then He experienced total separation from God, something no one in Christ will ever have to experience. Because He suffered for us, thereby conquering sin, death and evil, we never have to experience the complete separation from God (NO light, NO love, NO joy, NO goodness whatsoever). And not only that, He is with us in our suffering and because of Him, we have hope – the hope of resurrection, of a Judgment Day when all evil will be avenged and finally banished, and those who are in Christ Jesus will live with Him in eternal joy, where there will be no more death, crying, nor pain, and God Himself will wipe away every tear.

In our suffering, look to Jesus, really look at Jesus, and worship and praise Him for what He did for us on the cross. We can be sure that God is not punishing us because God put all the punishment we deserved on Jesus. And we can be certain that God cares for us, loves us, because He gave us Jesus. And we can be sure He is with us and is going to make something beautiful, even more beautiful than it would have been, because of and through our suffering.

I need to buy this book. I put a sticky note on almost every page because almost every page contains some idea or truth that I want to remember.

Here are some of the meaningful truths from this book:

(more…) “Walking with God through Pain and Suffering”

The Family Clause

by Jonas Hassen Khemiri, 2018 (English translation from the Swedish by Alice Menzies, 2020)

This was one of the books Fredrik Backman, the author of Anxious People, recommended. The whole time I was reading it, I thought the title was ‘The Father Clause,’ but now see that it is called, ‘The Family Clause.’ It’s about a very dysfunctional family in Sweden. I believe they were immigrants from a Mideastern country, although that is never fully revealed. I did learn that Sweden brought in immigrants to work in the Volvo factory. The father who is a grandfather loves his family but doesn’t show it very well. He lives in the foreign country and comes back to Sweden every 5 months and 28 days in order to keep his Swedish citizenship. He was a philandering father and was thrown out because he was so undependable. He only came back sporadically to visit the children. The children are now adults: a son who is a father with a girlfriend who is a mother, and his sister who is a daughter who is a mother and is pregnant with a man who isn’t her boyfriend but who loves her dearly and is so excited to have a baby with her. The brother who is a father who is a son and his girlfriend who is a mother have a 4 year-old daughter and a one-year old son. The father who is a son is on paternity leave and is taking care of them. Taking care of these children stresses him to the max. It’s painful to read how difficult it is for him to take care of these two children.

There is another sister from a different mother who is dead. She was a heroin addict who died of an overdose.

He is an excellent writer, but I don’t like what happens in this book. There is only one good thing that happens in this book-the son forgives his father. There are some terrible things in this book:

  1. The dead sister is still around. She wasn’t given the choice to leave the earth that most dead people are given. So, she hangs out with her father and kind of talks to him and keeps him from committing suicide by getting him off the train tracks. This whole section was icky, icky, icky.
  2. The son who is a father tries stand-up, fails miserably, decides to do the “big shop” and leaves his wallet on top of the car and drives off afraid of a couple of guys in the parking lot. They are following him and trying to get him to realize that he lost his wallet – trying to give it back. But, the son who is a father is so afraid, he drives as fast as he can to get away from them, never looks over, and ends up away from his family with no phone (which was part of the wallet) and no money. I wish he would have just looked over and seen these two guys were trying to help him, not hurt him.
  3. The very worst part of the book, though, is when the pregnant sister who is a mother decides to have an abortion that destroys the boyfriend who is not a boyfriend, who really loved her and wanted this baby and her forever.

Very well-written but disappointing book. There is only one Perfect Son and one Perfect Father. He loves us and cares for us – we don’t have to be perfect. Cast all your cares on Him because He cares for you (1 Peter 5:7.) Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest (Matthew 11:28.)

Rock Crystal

by Adalbert Stifter, translation copy 1945, originally published 1845

Novella about two children, brother (Conrad) and sister (Sanna), from the village of Gschaid, who walk through the Alps to their Grandparent’s home in a neighboring village (Millsford) on Christmas Eve. Grandmother sends them home early and they get caught in a snowstorm on the way back. They get lost and find their way to a snow cave. They are saved by drinking the black coffee extract their Grandmother gave them to bring to their mother as a gift. It keeps them awake so they don’t freeze to death. The northern lights also keep them awake. When day comes they wander over ice and rock, hopelessly lost. But then they hear the alpenhorn and see a red flag flying in the distance. They are found. The whole village was out looking for them. Sweet, little book. The children and their mother were considered outsiders since the mother was from the neighboring village, Millsford. But after this event, the children and their mother belonged to the village.

More Than Meets the Eye

Fascinating Glimpses of God’s Power and Design, by Richard A. Swenson, M.D., 2000

The intricacies of our bodies and the cosmos all point to an amazingly powerful and wonderful Creator. All of the things scientists discover after painstaking research and years and years of study, God spoke into being out of nothing. And it is amazing and the more we know, the more amazing it is.

(more…) “More Than Meets the Eye”

She Come By It Natural

Dolly Parton and the Women Who Lived Her Songs

by Sarah Smarsh, 2020

Short biography of Dolly Parton written by a young feminist who grew up poor in Kansas and likened her grandmother, Betty, to be the real Dolly Parton. In the acknowledgements, she writes: “Thanks especially to the real Dolly Parton, my grandmother Betty.”

I learned a lot about Dolly. She is a forgiving, generous, kind, loving person with a boatload of talent. She was the fourth of twelve children, born in 1946, on a farm in Tennessee. She loved tight clothes and big hair and performing on her front stoop with a pretend microphone made out of a tin can on a stick. She learned to play from her Uncle Billy who gave her a small guitar when she was aged 8. He’s also the one who took her around to recording studios. She left for Nashville as soon as she graduated from high school (1960s).

She was hired by Porter Wagoner for a mere pittance ($60,000/year – a fortune for her) and become the star of the show. She stayed two years longer than her contract. She had wanted to leave but he made it difficult. She finally did and wrote “I Will Always Love You,” and that song has made her rich many times over. She never sold the rights to it or any of her other songs. When Elvis wanted to record it and they asked for half the publishing, she had to tell them, “I’m really sorry,” and cried all night.

She is so generous with her fortune – giving 900 families who lost homes in the Tennessee wildfires $1000/month ($900,000 a month!) for 6 months and then they each got another $5000 at the end; 900 families received $11,000 each from Dolly ($9.9 million)!

She started the Imagination Library, giving any child who signs up a free book each month from birth to age 5. She gives scholarships to Tennessee high school seniors. She started a health care foundation.

Despite being disrespected and mistreated by male-dominated country music, she’s never been bitter, always been forgiving and generous-hearted and lovely. What a gift you are, Dolly Parton! God bless you!

(more…) “She Come By It Natural”

Anxious People

by Fredrik Backman, 2019 (translation to English by Neil Smith, 2020)

I LOVED this book! I started out not liking it at all – not liking the characters except for Jack, the young policeman, and his father, Jim, also a policeman. But then, you gradually come to love each of the characters:

Jack and his father, Jim – two wonderful, lovable policeman, who have lost their dear mother/wife, a priest who was their joy and delight. They also have a heroin addict sister/daughter who you don’t know much about except they continually loan her money to come home and she never comes home.

Nadia – a young psychologist who is counseling Zara.

The following people are in an apartment together that is for sale and they are viewing it when the bank robber shows up and takes them hostage.

Zara – an overly critical, neurotic and rich banker who hates people but attends apartment viewings just to observe.

Ro and Julia – a lesbian couple expecting a baby and they need a bigger place.

Roger and Anna-Lena – a retired couple who buy and flip apartments.

Estelle – (spoiler alert following) an 87-year old woman who is the owner of the apartment that is being viewed (you don’t know that until near the end), who lost her husband, Knut, the love of her life.

Lennart – an out-of-work actor who spoils apartment viewings so people don’t want to buy them. He is in the bathroom, sitting on the toilet with a rabbit head on. Anna-Lena hired him so Roger would always get the apartments at a good price, unbeknownst to Roger.

Real Estate Agent – not too much known about her.

The Bank Robber – beware of spoiler alert – a poor soul who has been handed some raw deals in life and is at her wit’s end. Yes, I said, “her.” Until halfway through the book, you think the Bank Robber is a man whose wife has cheated on him with his boss, the boss fires him, he has to move out of their home, they have two daughters, he can’t afford a home, can’t find a job, has to come up with $6500 rent (!) by the end of the month or his girls will be taken away. So, the bank robber decides to rob a bank with a pistol he’s found in the basement of an apartment building. The bank robber ends up being a girl – yes, her husband cheated on her with her boss, etc. What a twist!

Well, you end up loving each of these characters and the ending is very, very happy! I loved this book. Same author wrote, “A Man Called Ove.”

(more…) “Anxious People”

The New Map

Energy, Climate, and the Clash of Nations, by Daniel Yergin, 2020

Informative book. Learned that we’ve gone from being worried about running out of oil to being a major exporter of it, mainly as Liquid Natural Gas (LNG). We are one of the big 3 oil producers: USA, Russia, and Saudi Arabia. Also learned that fracking is not so bad – it is the reason we’ve become energy independent and the top oil producer in the world (as of Autumn 2018). Pipelines are not so bad – they move oil and natural gas much more easily – saves tons of trains and trucks. Also learned that Russia and China are friends now. Putin gives birthday presents to Xi Jinping. Also learned that renewables require tons of resources and minerals just to make a windmill or a battery. As Wayne says, there is no free lunch. Everything has a cost.

Well written but a few typos (I think because it was published in 2020 and so much happened with the COVID-19 pandemic that probably had to be researched and added at the last minute). This book is full of information, history, science, technology, fun facts. It is apolitical; he simply states what politicians say and do and once in awhile, will point out failures in logic and faulty reasoning.

I read all 46 chapters (430 pages) EXCEPT I could not finish the chapters on the Middle East. The Middle East is one confusing quagmire of history and current affairs. He includes history and facts on energy throughout the world but mainly in the USA, Russia, China, and the Middle East. Then, he talks about climate change and new technologies and renewables: much detail on electric vehicles, wind and solar. Learned that wind and solar have developed into much more viable alternatives but there are still some warts to work out. He didn’t say much about the future of nuclear, unfortunately. He did say it is the cleanest way to generate power. In Chapter 44, Breakthrough Technologies, he writes:

A new study, Advancing the Landscape of Clean Energy Innovation, led by Moniz and myself, conducted for the Gates Foundation and the Breakthrough Energy Coalition, identified twenty-three technologies with “highest breakthrough potential.” They fall into several areas: Storage and battery technology for the intermittency that bedevils large-scale use of wind and solar. Advanced reactors and a new generation of small reactors that would revitalize carbon-free nuclear power. Today, there are more than sixty advanced private-sector nuclear research projects in the United States.

Hydrogen had its false starts almost two decades ago with the hydrogen “freedom car” and a “hydrogen highway” in California. But a renewed focus has emerged on hydrogen to substitute for natural gas in heating and for fuel cells as an alternative to electric vehicles.

from Chapter 44, page 403

(more…) “The New Map”

Virgil Wander

by Leif Enger, 2018

Very disappointing book. It’s set in small-town Minnesota along Lake Superior. The main character drives off a cliff into Lake Superior and is rescued by Marcus Jetty, an old junk collector. Virgil’s life changes drastically after the accident. He meets a Norwegian kite flyer, Rune, who is the long lost father of the long lost baseball player, Alec. There’s a spooky bad guy named Adam. This is one of the reasons I disliked the book. My beloved son’s name is Adam so it’s hard to like a book with a bad guy named Adam. There’s a precious ten-year old boy named Galen who loves to fish. His dad, Shad Pea, is drowned by a sturgeon. Galen is determined to kill this sturgeon. He finally does near the end of the book. After that, good things start to happen in this “hard-luck” town. Rune is a very disappointing character. I expected him to kind of save the day with the bad guy but instead the kite-flying scene with Adam and Rune ends up almost killing Rune. He gets electrocuted and has injuries much like those of Christ although no one in Book Club picked up on that. But nothing is every redeemed through Rune. He seems to become less of a man after that. I was hoping he’d change the bad guy into a good guy – resolve something in Adam’s past, but no, nothing like that.

Virgil several times in the book, sees a man standing in Lake Superior. Realizes towards the end of the book that this man was the Attendant with him when he drove off the cliff. There’s a young man, Bjorn, who is the troubled son of the baseball player who disappeared, Alec. Bjorn likes to surf in the frigid Lake Superior. Virgil hires him to help in his dilapidated movie theater, the Empress, and with Bjorn’s help, it starts to turn around. Then, there’s a troubled man, Jerry, who is helping Adam Leer clean up his mansion but then builds a bomb. Oh my – too many loose ends that never come together and the characters, especially Rune, are either a major disappointment, or seem pointless. Also, he fills his writing with so many details that feel like he is just trying to show off.

This was the 2nd book selection of the year for the Old Town Library Book Club. We met last night to discuss the book, via Zoom. Some people really liked the book – the small town details in it. Some people really disliked the book. I fell in the group that disliked the book. He has been a disappointment since Peace Like a River. I don’t recommend this book. It was a waste of time.

The Sea and the Jungle

by H. M. Tomlinson, 1930

This was a book recommended on the book-a-day calendar that Christie gave me. I almost gave up on it at the start because it was so difficult to read – big words I didn’t know the meaning of, long sentences, etc. But, I hung in there and I’m so glad I did. I LOVED this book! It is humorous, beautiful, adventurous, heart-warming, a slight edge of suspense. It took me on a journey across the Atlantic from England and up the Amazon on an English steamer with a wonderful person. It is a true story. The author quit his boring accounting job in England after applying for and being hired as a purser on a steamer. Here’s what he writes on the cover page:

The Sea and the Jungle

Being the narrative of the voyage of the tramp steamer CAPELLA from Swansea to Santa Maria de Belem do Grao Para in the Brazils, and thence 2,000 miles along the forests of the Amazon and Madeira rivers to the San Antonio Falls; afterwards returning to Barbados for orders, and going by way of Jamaica to Tampa in Florida, where she loaded for home. Done in the years 1909 and 1910 by H. M. TOMLINSON with woodcuts by CLARE LEIGHTON, 1930

from the cover page

I thought the journey was from the 1700s or 1800s because the written English was so formal and different. I am very surprised it was a journey taken in 1909 and 1910 and a book published in 1930. The world has changed a lot since 1909. The Amazon river basin was unspoiled but deadly due to malaria (Yellow Fever) and some savage Indian tribes. On this journey, they were delivering ??? to a small settlement building a railroad deep in the Amazon.

(more…) “The Sea and the Jungle”

Hurtling Toward Oblivion

by Richard A. Swenson, M.D., 1999

Wayne read this book; I only read the last chapter (at his instruction) and skimmed some of the other chapters. It’s an interesting theory – as we “Progress,” we also increase the “fallenness” in our world: “Because our world is fallen there is at least something wrong with everything.” We are hurtling toward oblivion, the line on the graph going up and up and up, growing closer and closer and closer, faster and faster toward an ultimate end point. There is a “Threshold of Lethality.”

(more…) “Hurtling Toward Oblivion”

Cancer Hates Tea

by Maria Uspenski, Founder of the Tea Spot, 2016

Jennifer bought this book for Chris and Stufi and it looked intriguing so I got it from the library. She recommends 5 cups of green tea per day. She lists food high in Polyphenol antioxidants: Spinach, Acai Berries, Walnuts, Wild Blueberries, Tea Leaf, Goji Berries, Broccoli, chocolate, Pecans, Pomegranate. She talks about tea that comes from the tea plant, Camellia sinensis, which are all the White/Green teas, Oolong tea, Black tea, and Pu-erh tea (pronounced poo-air). That is the order of antioxidant content from highest to lowest. I’ve started drinking up all my teas since reading this book. After my coffee, I have a cup of black tea in the morning. She says drinking tea on an empty stomach is best, but always seem to drink tea after breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Herbal teas are mostly made of Hibiscus which has very high Vitamin C content so they are good for you, too.

(more…) “Cancer Hates Tea”

Mrs. Pollifax on Safari

by Dorothy Gilman, 1976

Fun mystery set in Zambia in the 1960’s. Mrs. Pollifax is sent on safari to take pictures of all the others on safari in hopes of finding the assassin, Aristotle. She does eventually much more than that and saves the beloved Zambian President from being assassinated. Loved the characters, the setting, the mystery. Laurie is the one who first told me about Mrs. Pollifax mysteries. I found this one in a ‘Little Free Library.’

Learned that Zimbabwe was once Rhodesia. In this book, they have not achieved independence yet and spies and freedom fighters are crossing from ‘Zambabwe’ (Rhodesia) into Zambia, which was Northern Rhodesia until its independence in 1964.

The DNA of You and Me

by Andrea Rothman, 2019

Our neighbor, Kim (of Kim and Richard), gave me this book to read because it was recommended for people who liked Lab Girl. It was a very quick read, a novel, a love-story, about scientists investigating the DNA of the sense of smell. The author was a research scientist who studied the sense of smell. Most of the science-y details were impossible for me to follow – like “knocked out” genes of mice, axon guidance genes, etc. The love story between the main character, Emily, and fellow scientist, Aeden, is wrought with difficulties and misunderstanding. Aeden smokes but Emily, who is really into smells, loves him. She’s a loner and always has been. Aeden and she work together and fall in love, but it doesn’t work out due to her insecurities and his trying to manipulate her into coming with him to another lab. He does this by switching the mice and making her think her theory is a failure. She finds out and can’t forgive him until it’s too late (10 years later). She’s famous, still alone, and now he’s married and has a son. They both still love each other, though, and lament what could have been if only Emily had forgiven him.

I love how the book ends: Emily goes to the Metropolitan Museum of Art to look at a painting of a man that looks like Aeden that she found years ago (a real painting of Garshin). When she was there years ago, an employee explains to her that it is not a self-portrait because that would have required a mirror. That gives her the clue to her theory that she needed that makes her famous. Ten years later, after finding out Aeden is married and has a son, she goes back to the Metropolitan Museum of Art and cries her heart out looking at that painting that started it all. That same employee is there and he lets her cry and then gives her a tour of his part of the museum and you can tell, they will be friends.

Good book, fast read.

This Beautiful Book

by Steve Green with Bill High

Steve Green is the president of Hobby Lobby. This book was recommended by Al. It’s a short, sweet little book about the Bible. You can tell Steve Green loves the Bible. I think it would appeal to brand new Christians. It’s a chronological recap of the most important stories and truths of the Bible and how everything fits together even though it was written by many different people over a span of 1500 years. God created the world, man chose to rebel and sin entered the world, God chose a people to whom to reveal Himself and bless the world through, God sent Jesus (who is God and fulfilled all the Messianic prophesies throughout the Old Testament) to solve humanities’ sin problem, the New Testament is about Jesus and the early church and Revelations reveals what is to come. He ends the book with the Bible’s claims: There is a God and the Bible is His Word, the Bible is inspired by God, the Bible is alive and judges the heart, the Bible is relevant-a source of instruction, the Bible will last forever. I read the book very quickly.

I really like how he opened the book – with the story of Mephibosheth in 2 Samuel 4:4 and 2 Samuel 9. Who is Mephibosheth and why is his story in the Bible? He’s the grandson of Saul, the son of Jonathan. He is injured and becomes lame when his nurse picks him up and flees in haste. Years later, when David is king, he asks if there are any descendants of Saul. Most kings would have killed any descendants of the prior king, but David rescues Mephibosheth, restores him and invites him to live out his days with David, eating at his table every day. This is what God does for us – we are outcasts, living in fear and hiding, but God comes to us, finds us, invites us to live in His kingdom as His child, restoring us, removing all of our fears, and letting us enjoy Him and His blessings every day forever. Thank you, God Almighty, through our Lord and Savior Jesus!

Islands in the Stream

by Ernest Hemingway, 1970 (Ernest Hemingway shot himself in July 1961 with his favorite shotgun in the entryway of his Ketchum, Idaho home. Mary Hemingway, his 4th and final wife, and Charles Scribner, Jr. published this book from Ernest’s original manuscript: “Charles Scribner, Jr. and I worked together preparing this book for publication from Ernest’s original manuscript. Beyond the routine chores of correcting spelling and punctuation, we made some cuts in the manuscript, I feeling that Ernest would surely have made them himself. The book is all Ernest’s. We have added nothing to it. Mary Hemingway”

Loved reading this book. Got it from a “Little Free Library.” It’s a man’s book written by a real man, and I love the tropical island settings in Bimini and Cuba and the action: seaside home on a tropical island, snorkeling (“goggle-fishing”), deep-sea fishing, island scenery, love of sons, friendships on a tropical paradise, followed by wartime camaraderie on a small ship in pursuit of the enemy off the coast of Cuba.

Natasha (with Tim and Lily) came to dinner and saw I was reading this book. She loves it and told me about Key West and seeing Ernest Hemingway’s home and places he used to go to and kitty-cats that are supposed descendants of his cats. Cats play a major role in the book – there is one cat, Boise, that Thomas Hudson absolutely adores.

(more…) “Islands in the Stream”

The Book of Job

by Stephen Mitchell, 1979, with Introduction 1987

A translation of the book of Job, but he doesn’t include Elihu, saying that it was a later addition and of inferior writing. He also leaves out Chapter 28, the Hymn to Wisdom.

He calls God the “Voice in the Whirlwind.” In his Introduction, he talks about the prologue where God talks with Satan (the Accuser), that “Compared to Job’s laments (not to mention the Voice from the Whirlwind), the world of the prologue is two-dimensional, and its divinities are very small potatoes.” And, “No, the god of the prologue is left behind as utterly as the never-again-mentioned Accuser, swallowed in the depths of human suffering into which the poem plunges us next.” About Job’s asking God to hear him, he says in the Introduction: “God will not hear Job, but Job will see God.” About Job’s response after God speaks: “Job’s response will not accommodate such whimpering. He has received his answer, and can only remain awe-stricken in the face of overwhelming beauty and dread.” Here’s some deep philosophy: “Once the personal will is surrendered, future and past disappear, the morning stars burst out singing, and the deep will, contemplating the world it has created, says, “Behold, it is very good.”‘…”He has let go of everything, and surrendered into the light.”

He also says of the children restored to Job, “Here the new children are the old children: even though Job’s possessions are doubled, he is given seven sons and three daughters, as before, all of them instantaneously grown up…” He talks about the significance of the daughters – that they are named while the sons remain anonymous: “The names themselves–Dove, Cinnamon, and Eye-shadow–symbolize peace, abundance, and a specifically female kind of grace.”

My favorite verse in Job is 19:25 from the NIV: “I know that my Redeemer lives, and that in the end he will stand upon the earth.” Here’s how Mitchell translates it although he says in his notes: “25-27 These famous verses are so filled with obscurities and corruptions that they are “impossible of textual solution on any theory” (Orlinsky, HUCA xxxii 248). I have had to omit them and improvise drastically.” But this may be his improvisation of 19:25: “Someday my witness would come; my avenger would read those words. He would plead for me in God’s court; he would stand up and vindicate my name.” I love the NIV: “I know that my Redeemer lives, and that in the end he will stand upon the earth.” Yes, Jesus – come, Lord Jesus, come!

Another of my favorite verses of Job is 13:15a “Though He slay me, yet will I hope in him…” Mitchell translates this as: “He may kill me, but I won’t stop…” The NIV does have a footnote for 15a: “Or He will surely slay me; I have no hope…“

Also, Job 1:21 in the NIV: “Naked I came from my mother’s womb, and naked I will depart. The LORD gave and the LORD has taken away; may the name of the LORD be praised.” Mitchell translates it the same: “Naked I came from my mother’s womb, and naked I will return there. The Lord gave, and the Lord has taken; may the name of the Lord be blessed.”

Wayne’s antennae went up when I told him about this book and the bit in the prologue about God and Satan perhaps being constructs of Job’s imagination (or something like that – the bit about the divinities of the prologue being small potatoes). I love Wayne’s interpretation of the ending of Job when God shows up – God was not talking to Job, He was talking to Satan. That just seems right.

A Hole Is to Dig

by Ruth Krauss, 1952

Adorable little children’s book, full of adorable illustrations and cute definitions like, “A hole is to dig…Hands are to hold…Mashes potatoes are to give everybody enough…The sun is so it can be a great day.” Recommended on the book a day calendar that Christie gave me.

Rough Magic

Riding the World’s Loneliest Horse Race, by Lara Prior-Palmer, 2019

This was the first book for the 2020-2021 Old Town Library Book Club. It was a fast read, like the 1000-kilometer horse race over the Mongolian Steppe it describes, in which 19 year-old Lara incredibly wins. She competed in it on a whim in the year 2013. She is ill-prepared and unconcerned. She is very deep and philosophical at times. She is an odd ducky from England. She has had an almost constant tummy ache since she was a teenager and this followed her and plagued her throughout the race. She doesn’t start out competitive but ends up being very competitive and wanting to beat Devan, the prideful blonde from Texas. And the reader wants her to beat Devan, too. Lara is asked if this is a UK vs. USA thing, and Lara answers, No, it’s a UK vs. Texas thing-the rest of the US is okay. She was born in 1994 and this book was published in 2019, so she wrote it in her mid-twenties or younger. She journals throughout the race in a Winnie the Pooh notebook which becomes soggy and the ink runs because of all the rain she has to ride through. She comes across as really thoughtful, lonely, and aching – physically and mentally, and I’m left with wanting her to find peace and comfort and solace. May you find that, Lara Prior-Palmer. You write a good book!

The race involves riding a different Mongolian horse (pony) from one ‘ger’ to another across 1000 kilometers of Mongolian grassland. You pick the horse you ride at each ger from among 40 or so available. I love how she comes to know each of her 25 horses; she gives them names, like Barbie and Stripes and Steppe Orchid. She seems to constantly be lost, has a GPS but doesn’t know how to use it. Not sure how she actually found her way to the finish. Sometimes she rides with a fellow racer or two, sometimes she rides alone. She ends the race alone on a plodding horse that would not run. She thinks she has come in 2nd to Devan’s first place, but Devan is penalized and Lara ends up winning. Time penalties occur if your horse’s heartbeat doesn’t lower to an acceptable level within 45 minutes of each leg.

(more…) “Rough Magic”

The Giver of Stars

by Jojo Moyes, 2019

Fantastic book about pack-horse librarians in Kentucky during the Depression. This book has everything: Characters you love, characters you hate, a couple of mysteries, well-written, deep sense of place, and a very good ending. Loved this book! It was recommended to me by Christie.

A Tramp Abroad

by Mark Twain, 1880

Delightful tramp through Germany, Switzerland, and Italy with Mark Twain and his mysterious agent, Mr. Harris, in the late 1800’s; funny, beautiful, and educational. The landscapes in Germany and Switzerland are beautiful, except there seem to be some villages in Switzerland that are full of manure (walking through “fertilizer juice.” His descriptions of the countryside make me long to see Europe, but before cars, planes, industrialism, and terrible wars. He is hilarious! He comes up with preposterous scientific theories that he tries to get real scientists to publish. He boils a thermometer and comes up with elevations of 200,000 feet. He sees that the moon never rises above a certain mountain so proposes the moon never goes higher than 12,000 feet. He describes mountain climbing attempts; one by telescope and another, which I think is a simple walk of less than a day, but with him it’s a huge undertaking involving about 17 guides, 22 bartenders, 18 chaplains, miles of rope, ladders, umbrellas, mules, and on and on. They get lost almost immediately and it takes them 7 days to get to the hotel, with many a mishap/disaster along the way. He learns that glaciers move so decides to go back down a mountain on a glacier, and waits, and waits, and waits, checking the time-tables, etc.

Throughout the book, he retells legends and stories from old and he includes illustrations on almost every page. A few of the drawings are his and they are hilarious. At the end, he talks about wanting to eat American food again and drink American coffee. Sounds like European food and coffee were awful back in the 1800’s. He makes a list of the meal he has requested once he arrives in New York City and it includes EVERY food and drink he’s missed. I LOVED this book, and I LOVE Mark Twain.

(more…) “A Tramp Abroad”