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.
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:
Creating shared value by caring about the environment.
Building the Purpose-Driven Organization by caring about their employees.
Rewiring Finance by caring about the long-term rather than the short-term.
Building Cooperation in order to make necessary changes all along the supply chains (cocoa, Nike, tea, palm oil).
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.
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:
There Can’t Be Just One True Religion
How Could a Good God Allow Suffering?
Christianity Is a Straitjacket
The Church is Responsible for So Much Injustice
How Can a Loving God Send People to Hell?
Science Has Disproved Christianity
You Can’t Take the Bible Literally
In Part 2: The Reasons for Faith, he examines all the arguments for God. Chapter titles are:
The Clues of God
The Knowledge of God
The Problem of Sin
Religion and the Gospel
The (True) Story of the Cross
The Reality of the Resurrection
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.
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.
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.”
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!
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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:
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:
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.
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.
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.)
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.
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.
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!
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.”
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.
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.
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.
