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The Secret Garden

by Frances Hodgson Burnett, 1911

Sweet story about two 10 year-olds who turn from being ugly, hateful, unhealthy, spoiled creatures into beautiful, happy, healthy children by the Secret Garden. Mary, the girl, and Colin, the boy, are cousins. Mary is sent to live in the Misselthwaite Manor on the Moor of Yorkshire after her parents die of cholera in India. She discovers the secret garden that has been shut up 10 years because that is where Colin’s mother died from a fall from a tree. Colin has been shut up in a room inside the house for 10 years, told he was sickly and was going to die. Mary finds him one rainy day and, with the help of Dickon, a 12 year-old boy from the Moor, who loves animals and nature, they change the garden and themselves with magic. They sing the Doxology of Praise of it. Beautiful, sweet tale about love of life and growing things and beauty and nature.

The Pillars of the Earth

by Ken Follett, 1989

From Karma. Wow! What a book, 973 pages!

It was set in England from the years 1123 to 1174. Ken Follett’s preface says this book was out of character – a story about building a church. “What’s more, I don’t believe in God.”

He fell in love with Peterborough Cathedral. Took him 3 years, 3 months to finish the book. He wanted to write a novel about cathedral builders. Here’s how he writes: “I begin by writing an outline of the story, saying what happens in each chapter, and giving thumbnail sketches of the characters.” Also, “The problem of the end of the book, which I had not outlined, was solved by a flash of inspiration, when I thought of involving the principal characters in the the notorious real-life murder of Thomas Becket.” (Archbishop)

(more…) “The Pillars of the Earth”

The Last Battle

by C. S. Lewis, 1956

I LOVED THE NARNIA BOOKS!!!

Here, in order of most favorite to least:

  1. A Horse and His Boy
  2. Voyage of the Dawn Treader (very close second to A Horse and His Boy)
  3. The Silver Chair
  4. The Last Battle
  5. The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe
  6. The Magician’s Nephew
  7. Prince Caspian

We saw the movie, Prince Caspian, on 5-17-08. Next movie will be in 2010 and it will be The Dawn Treader. Not sure I want to see it. Wayne doesn’t, for sure.

C.S. Lewis describes heaven in The Last Battle so wonderfully and so beautifully that you want to cry. It goes on for about 2 1/2 chapters in The Last Battle. These books are a treasure!!

In The Last Battle, an ape in Narnia dresses up his donkey, Puzzle, in a lion skin, passes him off as Aslan. He fools many of the talking beasts and starts taking over Narnia. He invites the Calormen and they start cutting down trees, using the talking horses to pull them.

King Tirian and his Unicorn, Jewel, go to investigate and end up captured. Jill and Eustace come to Narnia and save him.

(more…) “The Last Battle”

The Silver Chair

by C.S. Lewis, 1953

Eustace Scruggs and Jill Pole are at school, Experiment House, and are being chased by bullies. They go uphill to a gate that is usually locked but is open and find themselves on Aslan’s Mountain. Jill pushes Eustace off a huge high cliff, then meets Aslan as he blows Eustace safely away (to Narnia)Aslan gives Jill 4 signs:

  1. Eustace must greet an old and dear friend at once.
  2. Go north out of Narnia to the ruined city of the giants.
  3. Find a writing on a stone and do it.
  4. The lost prince will be the 1st person to ask you to do something in the name of Aslan.
(more…) “The Silver Chair”

The Voyage of the Dawn Treader

by C.S. Lewis, 1952

Eustace, Lucy, and Edmund get sucked into a picture in Eustace’s house of a ship at sea, back to Narnia, where Prince Caspian is at sea on the Dawn Treader. He rescues them and they go with him and his crew in search of 7 Lords that Miraz sent off to explore the unknown Eastern Sea.

  1. First they went to the Lone Islands. Landed on Felimath and pirates were there and kidnapped them to sell as slaves. Caspian gets bought by one of the 7 lords, Lord Bern, and they rescue the others and set those islands right. Lord Bern then is set in charge of them. Caspian makes him a Duke. The rest go on their journey, get caught at sea
  2. in a storm. Then land on another island. Eustace didn’t want to work in repairing the ship so goes off exploring and finds a dragon and his lair. The dragon is very old and dies. Eustace falls asleep on top of its gold and wakes up a dragon! It is that experience that brings him to Aslan and Aslan cures him. Removes his scales, and he’s a boy again. Much nicer now. They called that island Dragon Island and surmised that Lord Octesian died there.
(more…) “The Voyage of the Dawn Treader”

Turning Angel

by Greg Iles, 2005

Penn Cage solves the murder of Kate Townsend, 17 year-old high school girl having an affair with Dr. Andrew (Drew) Elliott, Penn’s best friend. Grew up together in Natchez, MS. Full of bad stuff: drugs, sex, crime, UGH. No more books by him.

Prince Caspian

by C.S. Lewis, 1951

Peter, Susan, Edmund, and Lucy Pevensie find themselves pulled back to Narnia, but it is thousands of ears later. Cair Paravel is almost completely grown over. They save a dwarf and he takes them to the place where Prince Caspian is battling his evil Uncle Miraz. He was the latest King of Narnia, but he was a Telmarine and didn’t believe in the Lion or the talking animals. Caspian’s nursemaid had told him the old stories and he believed them and loved them. Then, Miraz had a son so Caspian was going to be killed but escaped with the help of Doctor Cornelius, who can’t accompany him yet. He goes through the woods on his horse and gets knocked out, found by a Badger (Trufflehunter), a Black Dwarf (Nikabrik), and a Red Dwarf (Trumpkin).

Dr. Cornelius had given Caspian Susan’s horn and told him to use it in dire straits. After battle not going well, he used it, and that’s what called Peter, etc. back to Narnia. Trumpkin takes them back from Cair Paravel to where Caspian is, quite an adventure in itself, and Peter battles Miraz one-on-one, defeats him, and 2 traitors finish him off, then make war on the Narnians. They seem to be doing okay (Narnians) but the Telmarines got scared of the trees so took off to their town were Aslan gives them a choice: either stay in Narnia or go back to where they originally came from. Some with pure hearts choose Narnia. Others choose to go back where they came from. They didn’t know, but they were pirates on earth and get to go back to the island they captured long ago. Peter and Susan and Edmund and Lucy lead the way because they didn’t trust Aslan. They end up back in the train station though. Peter and Susan will never get to go back to Narnia – too old, Aslan told them.

The Horse and His Boy

by C.S. Lewis, 1954

Shasta is rescued by Bree, a talking horse, and they are making their way to Narnia. They meet Avaris and Hwin, another talking horse, and they decide to go together. Avaris is a Tarkheena and running away from a forced marriage. They go to the city of Tashbaan and both Shasta and Avaris get taken to palaces, separately, and learn of plans that help them. They go through the desert, get chased by a lion, stay with the Hermit, then the Battle between Rabadash and Archenland. Rabadash was a Prince in Tashbaan who wanted Queen Susan of Narnia to marry him. She escaped from Tashbaan and that is what caused Rabadash to attack Archenland. Shasta got to Archenland first and warned them. Shasta ended up being the long lost twin, Cor, and the future King of Archenland. What a wonderful tale! I loved all the descriptions of the City of Tashbaan: the palaces, gardens. I loved all the times Aslan showed up, making things happen the way they ought to. Wonderful story!!!!

The Geography of Bliss

by Eric Weiner, 2008

  1. The Netherlands – Happiness is a Number
  2. Switzerland – Happiness is Boredom
  3. Bhutan – Happiness is a Policy
  4. Qatar – Happiness is a Winning Lottery Ticket
  5. Iceland – Happiness is Failure
  6. Moldova – Happiness is Somewhere Else
  7. Thailand – Happiness is Not Thinking
  8. Great Britain – Happiness is a Work in Progress
  9. India – Happiness is a Contradiction
  10. America – Happiness is Home (Miami, Ashville, NC)

The beginning of each chapter was really funny. But I’m not sure he ever had much of a point to make. He rambles a lot. “One Grump’s Search for the Happiest Places in the World.”

The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe (Chronicles of Narnia Book 2)

by C. S. Lewis, 1950

Lucy enters the wardrobe first to Narnia, then Edmund does but he meets the witch. She gives him Turkish Delight and promises him more if he’ll bring back his 3 siblings, Peter, Susan, and Lucy. Edmund believes the witch, not Aslan, but she really just wants the 4 of them killed so they can’t become the rulers of Narnia, according to Prophecy. But then Edmund learns her true nature and Aslan comes back and saves him, sacrifices himself for Edmund, but returns to life and goes to the witch’s house and brings all the stone statues back to life. Then he goes to the battle between the witch and Peter and Edmund and the good animals. Edmund destroys her wand so she can’t turn any more into stone. Then Aslan destroys her. Peter, Susan, Edmund, Lucy become the kings and queens of Narnia and rule it in peace for many years. Then Tumnus, the Faun that Lucy met at first by the lamppost, lets them know the White Stag has returned and if caught, grants wishes. So they all go hunting for him and he leads them to the lamppost and they all have remembrance and decide to keep looking and end up through the wardrobe into the room on the very same day and same hour they had left. They explained to the professor why 4 coats were missing. And the professor believed them! But told them they wouldn’t be able to get back to Narnia by the wardrobe ever again. They would go back someday but, “It’ll happen when you’re not looking for it.” (You never get to Narnia the same way twice!)

(The professor is Digory, the little boy in The Magician’s Nephew, who went to Narnia first and saw Aslan create it. He got to take home an apple for his Mom, to cure her. He planted the core and buried the rings around it. A great storm blew the tree down. He used the timber to make the wardrobe.)

The Magician’s Nephew (Chronicles of Narnia Book 1)

by C.S. Lewis, 1955

Read to Wayne in car on the way home from New Mexico road trip.

Digory and Polly discover Narnia at its creation by Aslan. He sang it into existence. Beautiful! Digory overcomes temptation and brings apple home to his Mom, cures her. Evil Witch, Queen Jadis – they brought her from Charn – dead world – accidentally – now she is in Narnia and has eaten from the Tree of Life. The Uncle Andrew is the Magician. He is given a box of dust by his godmother. He made the rings out of dust. The yellow rings brought Polly and Digory to the Wood between the Worlds. The green rings bring them home.

Three Cups of Tea

by Greg Mortenson and David Oliver Relin, 2006

Greg was rescued by villagers in remote mountainous area of Pakistan (Korphe) after he tried to climb K2. He promised them he’d build them a school. Was a nurse, lived in storage unit in California. Wrote 580 letters. Only Tom Brokaw gave him $100. An article in a mountaineering magazine attracted Jean Hoerni to his cause, wealthy inventor of semi-conductor technology. He gave him $12,000 for first school. Greg got all the supplies to Korphe and they asked him for a bridge. So Jean gave him money for the bridge. Ten to 15 years later, he had built many schools and was starting to build in Afghanistan. The Saudi’s would build madrassas and train up the boys to be jihadists. Greg’s schools don’t teach hate.

www.penniesforpeace.org is one way to help – school children can help that way.

Later on, Greg Mortenson was investigated and ordered to repay one million dollars to the Central Asia Institute, the non-profit that Jean Hoerni created to fund the building of the schools. It was found that much of the book, Three Cups of Tea, was fabricated, and that Greg Mortenson was using a lot of the money donated to Central Asia Institute for his personal expenses. As I write this in June 2020, the penniesforpeace website still exists and Central Asia Institute is still a charity organization dedicated to educating children in Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Tajikistan.

Jane and the Man of the Cloth

by Stephanie Barron, 1997

Jane and her family go to Lyme – on the sea. First, a commoner is hung. Then later, Captain Fielding is shot, with Geoffrey Sidmouth’s horseshoes stamped in the dirt. Jane solves the crime. It’s not Geoffrey, but Mr. Crawford, the guy who digs for fossils. Lots of the book had to do with smuggling and French “Royalists” trying to overthrow Napoleon. It was very good – loved her descriptions of the coast and the town, but it was really complex trying to figure out the mystery.

Prodigal Summer

by Barbara Kingsolver, 2000

Moth Love – Lusa & Cole Widener – Cole is a farmer, falls in love and marries Lusa, a bug scientist, loves moths. Cole dies in trucking accident. Lusa stays on farm, raises goats, comes to love and accept Cole’s family and Cole’s family comes to love and accept her.

Predators – Deanna Wolfe and Eddie Bondo. She’s a 47 year-old forest ranger in the mountains of Tennessee. Loves all wildlife, especially coyotes. Eddie Bondo, traveling from Wyoming, sheep rancher, hates coyotes. They fall in love. He leaves her, pregnant.

Old Chestnuts – Garnett Walker and Nannie Rawley. He’s a stubborn 80 year- old trying to breed a blight-resistant chestnut. She’s an organic apply farmer, 75 years old. They live next door to each other. He is all for using chemicals to kill bugs and weeds. He’s so mad at her all the time. Finally, he and she become friends. He gives her the shingles in his barn and thanks her for the blackberry pie, his favorite. He starts to see the beauty in nature.

Eat, Pray, Love

by Elizabeth Gilbert, 2006

She goes through a divorce – “I don’t want to be married anymore.” And then a broken heart with David. So she decides to spend a year in Italy, India, and Indonesia (Bali). Italy = pursuit of pleasure – food and the language but mostly all about her. India – Ashram – yoga – finding God. Beginning of book – “And while I do love that great teacher of Peace who was called Jesus … I can’t swallow that one fixed rule of Christianity insisting that Christ is the only path to God.” That’s my problem with this woman – she gets to travel, getting paid for it (to write this book), thinking she’s all messed up because she doesn’t want to be married, so divorces, loves David but it’s a rotten love affair, gets to take a year off to recover. It’s all about her and her misguided search for life’s answers because she can’t accept Jesus. She thinks she found God but I’m afraid she found the Devil instead – all of her chanting and meditations, the four brothers, etc. But she’ll keep insisting she has finally found peace and love and God. Yucch! I thought it would be more about travel in those places but it’s mostly all about her and her psychological state at the time. Over and over and over again. Finally, in Bali, the pace picks up and we get more of a glimpse of Bali – what a beautiful island! There she fall in love with Felipe, a Brazilian ex-pat, 52 years old (she’s only 35 when writing this book). Really, he loves her, adores her, and wins her over.

This book has been on the bestseller’s list for months. I don’t understand, we don’t want to encourage her. She’s just a narcissistic, spoiled brat.

The Red Tent

by Anita Diamant, 2007

Story of Dinah, only totally different from the Bible, only the names are the same. Dinah is not raped. Her brothers murder her beloved. She flees to Egypt, mostly about women having periods, babies. Most men are despicable. A few are wonderful. The God of Jacob is only Jacob’s God. Mush about other gods and idols. I prefer the Bible. Not at all respectful of God or His people.

Jackdaws

by Ken Follett, 2002

Page-turner, heart-pounding, couldn’t put down. WWII – 6 women recruited to blow up telephone operation in St. Cecile, France. German interrogator, Dieter Franck, almost catches them but Flick (main female) outsmarted him. What a fantastic book! A little too x-rated in parts – not necessary – but, Oh My, what an exciting tale! LOVED IT!!!

The Street of a Thousand Blossoms

by Gail Tsukiyama, 2008

Japan – 1930s to 1960s

Two brothers, Hiroshi and Kenji, cared for by grandparents because parents drowned. Through WWII, Hiroshi became a Sumo wrestler, grand champion. Kenji became a mask-maker for the Noh Theatre. Both married, both lost wives. Hiroshi lost Aki – suicide – never overcame the guilt of her mother’s death in firestorm during WWII. Kenji lost Mika in a train wreck. Hiroshi also lost a son 4 months old – dies in his sleep. Aki’s sister, Haru, was always there for them. She cared for Hiroshi’s daughter, Takara, born after his son. Aki was afraid she would also die so wouldn’t care for her. Haru tried to help her out of her depression and almost had when a boiler exploded and brought back all the fear and guilt of her mother’s death.

Very interesting, sad, beautiful book. Akira-sensei, the mask maker who trained Kenji – was also a big part of the book. He should have stayed and tried to love Emiko and her daughter, Kiyo, in the village in the mountains, Aio. But for some reason, he couldn’t, and he left them but always, always missed them.

Grandmother – Obachan. Grandfather – Ojichan. Beautiful, poignant journey into Japan.

Jane and the Unpleasantness of Scargrave Manor

by Stephanie Barron, 1996

(I was confused at first because of “Editor’s Foreword” – Did Jane Austen write it or Stephanie Barron?)

LOVED THIS BOOK!!! Jane goes to the Scargrave Manor for her friend Isobel, newly married to the Earl. He gets murdered by Barbadoe’s nuts, then Marguerite, Isobel’s maid, gets murdered. Everyone has possibilities. You really think it is Lord Harold Trowbridge, but he ends up the good guy. It was Madame Delahoursaye.

Googled Stephanie Barron. She wrote the books using all her research and Jane Austen’s letters to set the stage.

In A Far Country

by John Taliaferro, 2006

“The True Story of a Mission, a Marriage, a Murder, and the Remarkable Reindeer Rescue of 1898.” Full of history of the Lopps, Tom & Ellen, who start a mission in Cape Prince of Wales, Alaska, in 1890. Lots of info on whaling, reindeer, natives in Alaska.Very, very interesting. What incredible hardships – Ellen had 6 children in Alaska all without a doctor’s help – by herself mainly. Hardy, strong folk! Good people!