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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
