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| 0802160158
| 9780802160157
| B0B15LS4MR
| 4.32
| 131,296
| Feb 2010
| Nov 01, 2022
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really liked it
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It the Kinsellas are looking to adopt, I'm available ... "'You don't ever have to say anything,' he says. 'Always remember that as a thing you need nev It the Kinsellas are looking to adopt, I'm available ... "'You don't ever have to say anything,' he says. 'Always remember that as a thing you need never do. Many's the man lost much just because he missed a perfect opportunity to say nothing.'" "This is my mother I am speaking to but I have learned enough, grown enough, to know that what happened is not something I need ever mention. It is my perfect opportunity to say nothing." ...more |
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Apr 2025
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Apr 15, 2025
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Kindle Edition
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| 0764243527
| 9780764243523
| 0764243527
| 4.72
| 131
| unknown
| Apr 01, 2025
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really liked it
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I was drawn to this book because I *might* be planning a trip to Norway. And, the Norwegian lass on the cover just looks so pretty! Often, I feel like
I was drawn to this book because I *might* be planning a trip to Norway. And, the Norwegian lass on the cover just looks so pretty! Often, I feel like the real-life models so frequently seen on historical fiction covers these days just don't "work." They look like modern people in an old-fashioned costume. But this example looked charming. The story is about Amalia, who (unfortunately for me) is already on the ship to the US from Norway as the story begins, in 1889. Her parents die of cholera on the journey, as do the parents of a 5-year-old girl, Ruthie. But Ruthie's mom asks Amalia to be Ruthie's guardian in the new world, and to help with the Iowa boarding house Ruthie inherits. The book then follows their time as they attempt to spruce up the neglected boarding house and make a go of it again. They meet many townsfolk, and create a family of sorts there. Although none of the book is set in Norway, there are some Norwegian phrases and a bit about the culture. I hadn't realized that Iowa was a big destination for Norwegian immigrants. I'd class this as a "gentle read." And often, books like this just don't excite me much. So I was pleasantly surprised that I enjoyed "Land of Dreams" quite a bit. Snelling writes well, and I found I could always just skim a page about the chickens scratching in the yard or something that didn't interest me. There was quite a bit of Christian faith, but woven in naturally. I liked the observation by one character that "he was grateful for the familiar rhythms of Lutheran liturgy, that he could worship in body and spirit even if his mind struggled at times." I've had similar thoughts as I sat in liturgical churches. Amalia is very sweet and I enjoyed her example of how to behave when dealing with a very difficult person. "Why couldn't everybody just be nice?" she wonders. I've wondered that too, Amalia. If you enjoy Christian historical fiction, give "Land of Dreams" a try. ...more |
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not set
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Mar 2025
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Mar 20, 2025
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| 1496484223
| 9781496484222
| 1496484223
| 4.71
| 14
| unknown
| Sep 09, 2025
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really liked it
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Several years ago, on a vacation "out west," we stopped by Los Alamos, New Mexico. There was a museum about the town, since it's famous as the locatio
Several years ago, on a vacation "out west," we stopped by Los Alamos, New Mexico. There was a museum about the town, since it's famous as the location where the bombs that ended WWII were made. My eyes glazed over at the exhibits concerning the construction of the bombs themselves. But one gallery featured several photographs of people who lived in the town, with stories about them. Now that was interesting! I ended up reading several books about the town; the way it was "secret" and didn't even have a name. If you lived there, you couldn't even tell relatives where you lived. And most of the people working on the bomb project had no idea what they were working on. A similar thing happened in Oak Ridge, Tennessee: another "secret" town, this one involved in enriching the uranium needed for the bombs. We visited there a few years later, and it too was fascinating. So, when I saw "The Women of Oak Ridge" at NetGalley, I signed up. It's a fictional story about Mae, a young lady from Kentucky who moves to Oak Ridge for a job. Her dad is in poor health from working in coal mines, and she wants to help her family out. She doesn't know what her work involves, and is warned (as are all the employees) constantly not to discuss it with anyone. She works at the huge K-25 building, biking papers from one location to another as needed. She has a roommate, Sissy, who has a similar job. When an officer takes a shine to Sissy, she is thrilled. But Mae is suspicious of the guy, and for good reason. Things start to go sour, and Sissy disappears. Mae decides to try to find out what has happened. The book has another story going on as well, this one set in 1979 with Laurel, Mae's niece. Laurel is working on her PhD in psychology and is focusing on studying people who'd worked on the Oak Ridge uranium project during WWII. She comes to town to stay with her aunt and interview her, as well as others. She's disappointed when Mae is very closed-mouth about her time in Oak Ridge. I don't want to give any spoilers, so you'll need to read the book to see why Mae is so quiet about those years, as well as to see whether the mystery of Sissy's disappearance is solved. As you might guess, a handsome young police officer is part of the story too, and he and Laurel work together on many of the story's mysteries. I enjoyed the book overall. It was well-written, and there was nothing objectionable by way of language or situation. A few things seemed a little off; Mae is 56 but was written easily 20 years older ("just a foolish old woman" she refers to herself once, she's often mentioned lying in bed and needing to rest, the family fears her living alone, etc). There is a black woman character, Velvet, who seems to be included solely to serve as a vehicle for describing the poor living conditions of blacks working at Oak Ridge (and of course Mae, back in the 1940s, befriends Velvet and bemoans the treatment of blacks). Velvet and her pastor husband bring about the spiritual scene near the end of the book that make it feel like a fit for the publisher, Tyndale. There is much about Oak Ridge and the bomb project, and if you find this time and place interesting, I think you'll enjoy "The Women of Oak Ridge." ...more |
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not set
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Mar 2025
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Mar 11, 2025
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Paperback
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| 0671037706
| 9780671037703
| 0671037706
| 4.09
| 75,112
| 1957
| Jul 2000
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it was amazing
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Daughter #3 recommended Dandelion Wine to me, and her rec’s are usually good, so I checked it out of the library. I read it, but liked it so much I’m
Daughter #3 recommended Dandelion Wine to me, and her rec’s are usually good, so I checked it out of the library. I read it, but liked it so much I’m now listening on audio too. It’s by Ray Bradbury of “Fahrenheit 451� fame. I've read a few of his short stories but not anything else. “Dandelion Wine� is a seemingly autobiographical set of short stories/vignettes in which we get to know 12-year-old Doug, his 10-year-old brother Tom, and various other residents of the small Illinois Town of Green Town during the summer of 1928. At first I wasn’t sure exactly what was going on or where this book was taking me, but right off the bat I sensed a kindred spirit in young Douglas, who seemed to feel and experience things deeply. His affection for the world around him was evident: “I was a boy who did indeed love his parents and grandparents and his brother, even when that brother ‘ditched� him.� Waking up one morning at the beginning of summer, he realizes with wonder “I’m really alive!� and questions Tom, “Does everyone in the world � know he’s alive?� He goes on to think about all the wonders of a summer during childhood, and this reverie brought back fond memories to me as well. It’s not just the kids in this book who are in touch with their feelings. Probably my favorite character was Grandpa, who goes on about his love of hearing the lawn mower. You’ll never look at mowing the grass as a chore again if you read this book! Grandpa says to Bill Forrester, the young reporter he’s hired to mow for him, “If you had your way you’d pass a law to abolish all the little jobs, the little things. But then you’d leave yourselves nothing to do between the big jobs and you’d have a devil of a time thinking up things to do so you wouldn’t go crazy. Instead of that, why not let nature show you a few things? Cutting grass and pulling weeds can be a way of life, son � When you’re all to yourself that way, you’re really yourself for a little while; you get to thinking things through, alone. Gardening is the handiest excuse for being a philosopher. Nobody guesses, nobody accuses, nobody knows, but there you are, Plato in the peonies, Socrates force-growing his own hemlock.� It’s wonderful. Doug has a friend, John, who moves away that summer. This gets Douglas thinking about all the changes of life, which can be scary–at any age. He says to his younger brother, “Don’t go away, huh? Don’t let any cars run over you or fall off a cliff � Course if worst comes to worst, and both of us are real old–say forty or forty-five some day–we can own a gold mine out West and sit there smoking corn silk and growing beards � Like I say, you stick around and don’t let nothing happen � it’s not you I worry about. It’s the way God runs the world.� Then we have a story where two young girls are visiting with an older lady. She tells them she was once there age, and they recoil in horror, not believing this could be. Mrs. Bentley considers this: “‘No one ever doubted I was a girl before. What a silly horrible thing to do. I don’t mind being old � not really � but I do resent having my childhood taken away from me.� She could see the children racing off under the cavernous trees with her youth in their frosty fingers, invisible as air.� She remembers her late husband’s admonition: “‘Why do you save those ticket stubs and theater programs? They’ll only hurt you later. Throw them away, my dear.� But Mrs. Bentley had stubbornly kept them. ‘It won’t work,� Mr. Bentley continued, sipping his tea. ‘No matter how hard you try to be what you once were, you can only be what you are here and now. Time hypnotizes. When you’re nine, you think you’ve always been nine years old and will always be. When you’re thirty, it seems you’ve always been balanced there on that bright rim of middle life. And when you turn seventy, you are always and forever seventy. You’re in the present, you’re trapped in a young now or an old now, but there is no other now to be seen.'� I have these mental conversations with myself all the time, and it was pure delight to find a book full of them. An aging colonel marvels at his ruined body: “He slipped his brittle ivory legs down from the bed, marveling at their desiccation. They seemed to be things which had been fastened to his body while he slept one night, while his younger legs were taken off and burned in the cellar furnace.� Near death, his chief joy in life is to call an acquaintance out West and have him hold the phone up to the window so that he can hear and imagine the good days he spent out there in his youth. One of the most moving vignettes was when young reporter Forrester and a 95-year-old woman meet in a soda shop and begin a conversation. They realize that despite their 60-year age gap, they are kindred spirits, and more realizations follow. It brings up many thoughts, mainly melancholy ones about what if you were born in a different era from your soulmate? “Time is so strange and life is twice as strange. The cogs miss, the wheels turn, and lives interlace too early or too late. I lived too long, that much is certain. And you were born either too early or too late. It was a terrible bit of timing.� I loved the way Bradbury could encapsulate the feelings of childhood: “‘He didn’t get the book of magic tricks he wanted for his birthday, got a pair of pants and a shirt instead. That’s enough to ruin the summer right there.� ‘Parents sometimes forget how it is,� said Mr. Jonas.� And I loved Mr. Jonas the junk man’s take on Doug’s sensitive nature: “Some people turn sad awfully young. No special reason, it seems, but they seem almost to be born that way. They bruise easier, tire faster, cry quicker, remember longer and , as I say, get sadder younger than anyone else in the world. I know, for I’m one of them.� Eeyores of the world, unite ...more |
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1
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not set
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Mar 2025
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Mar 11, 2025
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Paperback
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| 1622457951
| 9781622457953
| B0DS2Q2NSK
| 4.00
| 1
| unknown
| Jan 01, 2025
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really liked it
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Aneko Press recently offered the kindle version of "Adoniram Judson, His Life and Labors" as its free monthly book. I almost always find missionary bi
Aneko Press recently offered the kindle version of "Adoniram Judson, His Life and Labors" as its free monthly book. I almost always find missionary biographies worthwhile to read, and really the only thing that came to mind about Judson was that he had a university named after him. I downloaded the book, and then saw that it was over 700 pages. Oh my � it was written a couple of hundred years ago by one of his sons (he had 13 children with 3 wives), and I can’t really critique an 1850 book with 2025 sensibilities, but I wish it was about 1/3 the length. The size of the book is going to turn away many readers. That said, once I got into the style of writing, I enjoyed inhabiting this world for a week or so. Adoniram (what a name!) Judson was born in Massachusetts in 1788. He was a precocious child, learning to read at 3. His mother taught him to read, thinking that this would be a nice surprise for her husband when he returned from a journey. Adoniram learned so well that when his dad arrived, he greeted him by reading an entire chapter of the Bible for him. His sister recalls that her brother liked to gather neighborhood children and play church, with himself serving as minister, at age 4. He grew up continuing to love books, and it was mentioned that there were really no “children’s books� then (crazy!), so he read his father’s theology books and classic novels of the time. From his youth, he was motivated and worked hard: “A few days and our work will be done. And when it is once done, it is done to all eternity. A life once spent is irrevocable. It will remain to be contemplated through eternity. If it is marked with sins, the marks will be indelible. If it has been a useless life, it can never be improved. Such it will stand forever and ever � Each day will not only be a witness to our conduct but will affect our everlasting destiny. No day will lose its share of influence in determining where our seat in heaven shall be. How shall we then wish to see each day marked with usefulness! It will then be too late to mend its appearance. It is too late to mend the days that are past. The future is in our power. Let us, then, each morning, resolve to send the day into eternity in such a garb as we shall wish it to wear forever. And at night, let us reflect that one more day is irrevocably gone, indelibly marked.� Wow, motivating! Judson and his wife, Ann, leave the US, where he intends to be a missionary in Burma. I’m not real well acquainted with that country, and in my mind I kept “The King and I� because it seems to be nearby and the same type of culture/garb as that musical. From the first, he had adventure, as his ship was captured on the way by French pirates for a few months. But Judson used even this experience: “It seemed to him that God had permitted this capture and all his trouble as a trial of his faith; and he resolved, in the strength of God, to bear it, as he might be called upon to bear similar trials hereafter.� Gotta love that spiritual maturity. Back on the ship, Judson was facing a spiritual crisis: he had been raised as a Congregationalist, but came to believe that Baptists had a better theology. He became a Baptist, feeling strongly that baptism should be reserved for believers rather than “unconscious infants.� But this was a big deal because he knew it would grieve his American friends, to the extent that many of his supporters back home would not send support anymore. “I hope � that while my friends condemn what they deem a departure from the truth, they will at least pity me and pray for me.� He arrives finally in Burma, meeting the mostly Buddhist “half-wild people� who unlike most Asians “are not a fawning race. They are cheerful and singularly alive to the ridiculous and are buoyant, elastic, and soon recovering from personal or domestic disaster � at all times frankly yield to the superiority of a European. Though ignorant, they are, when no mental exertion is required, inquisitive, and to a certain extent eager for information.� This goes on, and would be condemned today, but I have to appreciate reading observations as they would have been at that time. Having arrived, his first task was to learn the language–not an easy task, since the language there was nothing like English, or even another European language. “We have no dictionary, and no interpreter to explain a single word, and must get something of the language before we can avail ourselves of the assistance of a native teacher.� I can’t imagine. Mrs. Judson kept having health issues (as did the future Mrs. Judsons). I had to wonder what modern-day name these problems would have. Usually, the person was advised to get onto a boat to alleviate the issue. In this case, after three months in another location, Ann returns and “was made the happy mother of a little son. I had no physician or assistant whatever except Mr. Judson.� Oh my. Judson was discouraged at first. In addition to learning a really tough new language, the Burman emperor refused to allow them to teach Christianity. “I have � wholly failed in my undertaking. Where, my rebellious heart is ready to cry, is the wisdom of all this? � Be still, my soul, and know that He is God.� It took over 7 years in the country before he baptized his first convert: “We sow on Burma’s barren plain, we reap on Zion’s hill.� After a few years in the country, a war broke out and Judson was taken prisoner for 21 months (on the false charge of being a spy). This would be bad for anyone, but Judson’s fastidious, particular nature made it even worse for him. “Had it not been for an assured conviction that every additional trial was ordered by infinite love and mercy, I must have sunk under my accumulated sufferings.� After the war ends, Judson’s wife dies. She never seemed to adjust well to the climate in Burma, and again, I’m wondering (in present-day terms) what was going on with that. He marries again, a woman who was married to another missionary in Burma who died. Fast-forward that this wife dies later too, and he finally marries again, in his late 50s, to an American woman in her early 30s. She finally outlives him. Along the way, he has 13 children, many of whom die young. I wondered whether this was due to living in Burma, or just a sad consequence of the times. If a child made it to 5 or so, the couple would send them to the US for the better climate. And often, they would send them expecting never to see them again on earth. I couldn’t imagine! During these years, Judson also single-handedly translated the entire Bible into Burmese, if you can imagine. And as his congregation slowly grew, it was interesting to me that he was pretty tough on who he’d agree to baptize. I would think he’d take anyone who wanted to! But I know, it’s a different culture and things may be different. For instance, once mention is made of someone who became a Christian, then later made a sacrifice to a demon in hopes of a recovery for a sick child. It was also interesting to read Judson’s opinions that distributing many entire Bibles among the Burmese was “the greatest mistake� he ever made, feeling instead that “our business is to propagate the Gospel, scatter the good news of salvation, and let everything else alone.� This seems shocking, but I kind of get it. I’m not sure being hit with all the prophets, etc. would be that enticing or understandable to someone in a culture totally alien to Christianity. Judson was in Burma for 30+ years before finally going to America briefly (and it sounds like, reluctantly). He had made up his mind to live and work in Burma. Similarly, as he got older he prepared his mind for death. “He who appoints all our times and bounds of our habitation does all things well, and we ought not to desire to pass the appointed limits.� To one of his sons, living overseas, he writes that it would be nice to see him, but “it is of little consequence where we spend the short remnant of life. Heaven is before us. Let us pray much and live devoted to God, and we shall soon be united in that happy world where there is no dividing sea.� What a great attitude! Sarah Judson, his second wife, had a similar attitude when she faced death at 42; “she had been in the habit of contemplating death as neither distant nor undesirable.� This is probably a practice more of us should do today. Judson writes of his regret that no portrait exists of this fine lady. More thoughts on life and eternity: “You have but one life to live in which to prepare for eternity. If you had four or five lives, two or three of them might be spent in carelessness. But you have one only. Every action of that one life gives coloring to your eternity. How important, then, that you spend that life to please the Savior, who has done everything for you!� Frequent mention is made of Judson’s habit of walking “or rather running� a few miles each morning, not on flat land but up and down hills. He was convinced that this practice led to his relative longevity for the time (he died at 62 of some type of lung infection). He remained vital to the end, musing “I suppose they think me an old man and imagine it is nothing for one like me to resign a life so full of trials. But I am not old � at least in that sense; you know I am not. Oh, no man ever left the world with more inviting prospects, with brighter hopes or warmer feelings � I feel as if I were only just beginning to be prepared for usefulness.� Suffering from an illness, it was suggested that he take that ubiquitous ‘sea voyage,� and so he was carried to a ship, where a week or so later he died and was buried at sea. He had hoped to build a church of a hundred converted Burmans and convert the Bible into their language. In the end, he baptized over seven thousand and translated not only the Bible, but most of a Burmese dictionary as well. ...more |
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1
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not set
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Mar 2025
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Mar 01, 2025
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Kindle Edition
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| B0C6L2JQX9
| 4.01
| 138,775
| Sep 12, 2023
| Sep 12, 2023
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liked it
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None
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not set
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not set
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Mar 01, 2025
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Kindle Edition
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| B000SEI07S
| 3.80
| 117,086
| Sep 01, 2004
| Oct 15, 2007
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liked it
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The plotting in this was impressive, the way the author intertwined 3 separate cases and so many characters. It was fun to see the way they all fit to
The plotting in this was impressive, the way the author intertwined 3 separate cases and so many characters. It was fun to see the way they all fit together in the end. Still, all the cursing and many lifestyle choices were 180 degrees different from mine and that aspect was a turnoff for me. I didn't really like most of the characters as people. "Victor would be nothing without her, but he was also nothing with her." "Olivia was the only one she loved, although God knows she tried her best with the others. Everything was from duty, nothing from love. Duty killed you in the end." "How could you spoil a child -- by neglect, yes, but not by love. You had to give them all the love you could, even though giving that much love could cause you pain and anguish and horror and , in the end, love could destroy you. Because they left, they went to university and husbands, they went to Canada and they went to the grave." "(Her dad) deserved happiness, and when she went to university he was going to be heartbroken, even though he pretended he wouldn't be. Maybe not heartbroken, not the way she felt when Poppy died, but he was going to be very sad because it had been just the two of them for so long and he lived for her. That was why she was going to Aberdeen, because it wasn't on the doorstep. She had to get away, to be herself, to become herself. As long as she stayed with Dad she'd be a child. She wouldn't be like Jenny. Jenny was really bad, she never phoned or wrote -- all the effort was always on Dad's side. It was almost like she didn't care about him at all. When Laura left she was going to phone a lot and she'd already bought a little stock of postcards, funny ones and ones with cute animals on them that she was going to send to him regularly. She loved him more than anything." I love Laura :) ...more |
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not set
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Apr 2025
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Feb 28, 2025
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Paperback
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| 0141180412
| 9780141180410
| 0141180412
| 4.05
| 9,131
| 1920
| Dec 01, 1997
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really liked it
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One feature of Å·±¦ÓéÀÖ that I love is the social media-like feed of what my friends here have read. One friend (who I don’t know in real life) recen
One feature of Å·±¦ÓéÀÖ that I love is the social media-like feed of what my friends here have read. One friend (who I don’t know in real life) recently read and reviewed “The Wreath.â€� The book is the first in a trilogy called “Kristin Lavransdatterâ€� about a girl of that name, written in the 1920s but set in 14th century Norway. Since Norway is on my mind and my friend rated the series highly, I got it from the library and began to read. Author Sigrid Undset won the Nobel prize for literature in 1928, and apparently this series is still widely popular in Norway. Also it’s good to know up-front that if you’re interested in the book or series, the newer translation by Tiina Nunnally seems to be much higher-rated than the older one (which I read), by Charles Archer. We begin with young teenage Kristin. Her older brothers died in infancy, a younger sister has been permanently injured in an accident which renders her an invalid, and so Kristin is the main one helping around the house. The church plays a big role in the family’s life, and Kristin’s father has made a match for her to marry a young man, Simon. Simon’s family’s land adjoins that of Kristin’s family, making this a good deal for both families. Kristin is low-key accepting of the match, although she’s not too excited by Simon. She’s a little more taken with a childhood friend, but when he dies in a tragic accident her father decides to send Kristin off to a convent for a year, thinking that that will increase her willingness to marry Simon. At this point in her life though, Kristin is not all that devout: “She did not love God and His Mother, and the Saints so much, did not even wish to love them so–she loved the world and longed for the world.â€� One night, Kristin and her roommate are out in the village and on their way back to the nunnery, they meet “the worldâ€� in the form of a young man, Erlend. It doesn’t take long for Kristin and Erlend to fall madly in love. But Erlend is a classic bad boy. It turns out that he has carried on an affair with a married woman (granted, she was married to a much older man against her will, but still), and had two children with her before pretty much abandoning all of them. Simon tries to speak sense to Kristin: “Have you thought what kind of husband you will get, if you wed a man who took another’s wife to be his paramourâ€� and now would take for wife another man’s betrothed maiden ..?â€� It’s a legit question. Throughout the book, Kristin and Erlend come across as young and foolish many times, while many of the older characters offer them a lot of wisdom, which they rarely take. I really felt for Kristin’s parents, who had tried their best to raise their daughter well, and who were devastated by her choice of mate and again later when they learned that the two had been â€� fooling around prior to their marriage. “â€� gladly would she (her mother) have passed through the fire for her daughter; they believed it not, neither Lavrans (her father) nor the child â€� but ’twas so. Yet did she feel toward her now an anger that was near to hate.â€� Relatable. More tragedies happen, and one reminded me a lot of the Austrian “Mayerling Incidentâ€� which I read a book about recently. I recalled that that happened in 1889. It got a lot of worldwide attention and would have been less than 30 years ago at the time this book was written, so I had to wonder whether Undset had it in mind. Later, Erlend’s aunt “grew strangely heavy at heart as she saw that this child seemed to think not at all on the sorrow she would bring on her father and mother.â€� This seems to happen so often, both in life and in this book. Kristin does mature some toward the ending of the book, as her wedding approaches (the title refers to the crown or wreath worn by medieval Norwegian brides): “Much have I done already that I deemed once I dared not do because ’twas sin. But I saw not till now what sin brings with it–that we must tread others underfoot.â€� I realize this was written in 1928, but it was refreshing to read a book where characters recognize sin and think/speak about it openly. A monk who has befriended and tried to help Kristin counsels her, as he is dying, “Ay, a young child like you thinks, maybe, there are no other lures in the world than pleasure and riches and power. But I say to you, these are small things men find by the wayside; and I–I have loved the ways themselves–not the small things of the world did I love, but the whole world.â€� Poignant. Kristin is actually pregnant at her wedding (although she hopes to hide this), and wonders: “Twas a son that was coming to her–whatever fate he was to bring â€� She remembered her dead little brothers, her parentsâ€� sorrowful faces when they spoke of them; she remembered all the times she had seen them both in despair for Ulvhild’s sake–and the night when Ulvhild died. And she thought of all the sorrow she herself had brought them, of her father’s grief-worn face–and the end was not yet of the sorrows she was to bring on her father and mother.â€� It was nice to see Kristin maturing as the book came to its conclusion. At the wedding, which ends the book, Kristin’s father Lavrans reflects that neither he nor his wife had chosen the other as a mate, yet they had lived an “okayâ€� life. And her mother admits that she had slept with another man before her own wedding, leaving the oldest child’s parentage uncertain. It was nice to read about the various shades of gray the characters encountered, and the ways they dealt with them as they all matured. All this introspection was pretty unexpected in a novel set in medieval times, but I liked it: people, at heart, probably don’t really change much even as the times do. “The Wreathâ€� did a great job of transporting me to rural 14th century Norway. If that interests you, I recommend the book. ...more |
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Mar 2025
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Feb 12, 2025
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Paperback
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| B0DSZPZS5J
| 4.23
| 21,586
| 1965
| Jan 01, 1996
|
it was amazing
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I have enjoyed Flannery O'Connor's books for years. She was a writer from Georgia whose Southern and Catholic identities hugely informed her writing.
I have enjoyed Flannery O'Connor's books for years. She was a writer from Georgia whose Southern and Catholic identities hugely informed her writing. Her works are usually dark with quirky characters, which makes sense when you look into her history. She never married and lived at home with her mother, dying in her 30s of lupus. I saw her short story "The Lame Shall Enter First" mentioned somewhere and looked it up. It's in "Everything that Rises Must Converge," a collection of O'Connor's short stories. I got it in audiobook from the library, and I highly recommend that. The readers are excellent and use "southern voices" that make these stories come alive. The only downside to the audio is that I wasn't able to find a table of contents, so there really was no way to easily navigate to a different story. The stories in the collection are Everything that Rises Must Converge, Greenleaf, A View of the Woods, The Enduring Chill, The Comforts of Home, The Lame Shall Enter First, Revelation, Parker's Back, and Judgment Day. These are not "happily ever after" stories, but man, are they ever well-written. I enjoy reading O'Connor's work because I appreciate the intelligence and thought that go into them. There are lots of Biblical references and themes, which is an added plus for me. I love the way often, a character who initially seems like the "bad" one will end up being revealed as better than the one you thought was the "good" one. There are many instances of grown children behaving badly toward parents. Often during a story, I found myself thinking that one or another character reminded me of someone I knew. It's hard to take notes with an audio book, but I noted some quotes in a few of the stories. In "The Lame Shall Enter First," we have a father and young son who've recently lost their wife/mom. Dad is a social worker who is putting everything into a troubled youth (Johnson) at the expense of his own young son (Norton). Dad seems oblivious to this, though. Dad: "If I can help a person, all I want is to do it. I'm above and beyond simple pettiness." "What was wasted on Norton would cause Johnson to flourish." Dad to Norton: "Suppose by some chance you did win a thousand dollars. Wouldn't you like to spend it on children less fortunate than yourself? Wouldn't you like to give some swings and trapezes to the orphanage?" Dad: "You stop thinking about yourself and start thinking about what you can do for someone else. Then you'll stop missing your mother." The boy was silent, but his shoulders continued to shake. The irony in all these quotes is delicious. And the story's ending is so tragic, yet so predictable. From "A View of the Woods," we get these thoughts from the self-satisfied grandfather, who ends up getting quite a wake-up call: "... he reviewed once more the many just reasons that were leading him to his current action, and he could not locate a flaw in any of them. He decided that while this attitude of hers would not be permanent, he was permanently disappointed in her, and then when she came around, she would have to apologize." Such good insight into human attitudes and actions here. And in the title story, "Everything that Rises Must Converge" (if you're curious--as I was--this is apparently a famous-ish quote by a Catholic theologian): we have a young man, Julian, who thinks he knows it all on a bus ride with his mother, who he feels is hopelessly racist and old-fashioned: "Julian allowed no glimmer of sympathy to show on his face. Having got the advantage, he wanted desperately to keep it and carry it through. He would have liked to teach her a lesson that would last her a while but there seemed no way to continue the point." "He would have liked to get in conversation with the Negro and talk with him about art or politics or any subject that would be above the comprehension of those around them, but the man remained entrenched behind his paper." "In spite of growing up dominated by a small mind, he had ended up with a large one. In spite of all her foolish views, he was free of prejudice and unafraid to face facts. Most miraculous of all, instead of being blinded by love for her as she was for him, he had cut himself emotionally free of her and could see her with complete objectivity." "Everything that gave her pleasure was small and depressed him." At the end of this story, as you might guess, Julian gets a wake up call. From "The Enduring Chill": "She had managed after he (husband) died to get the two of them through college and beyond, although she had observed that the more education they got, the less they could do. Their father had gone to a one-room schoolhouse and he could do anything." "He (Asbury, the "tortured artist" adult son) felt that even if she didn't understand at once (a note Asbury's written for my mother to read after his death), the letter would leave her with an enduring chill and perhaps, in time, lead her to see herself as she was" (the irony of course being that Asbury is the one who is most blind to his own faults). If these topics interest you, or if you're just a fan of good writing, I recommend these stories. I think they're wonderful. ...more |
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Feb 2025
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Feb 08, 2025
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Paperback
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| 194419455X
| 9781944194550
| B07TJ1GPKN
| 4.18
| 39
| unknown
| Jun 25, 2019
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it was amazing
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Before she moved to her current home, friend Leona used to get invites to various seminars put on by financial advisors and other such businesses, off
Before she moved to her current home, friend Leona used to get invites to various seminars put on by financial advisors and other such businesses, offering a free dinner for attending their program. She’d ask if I wanted to attend as her guest, and we enjoyed some great meals at these over the years. At one, the presenter also gave her a copy of the advisor’s book, "Job Optional." After she read it, she passed it on to me. I have to admit that it sat on a book stack for a while. Let’s face it, few peoples� first choice in reading would be a book about financial planning. You kind of need to work up to it. But the other day, in desperation, I finally began reading it. I’m not sorry. The book starts out with advisor Casey talking about needing to find your “purpose� in retirement, and this part kind of made sense but wasn’t that interesting to me. But then he got into nuts and bolts. He talks about saving/investing during one’s working years, and different vehicles that are good for that and why. Much of the book is devoted to retirement and how to use one’s various savings. At points my eyes did glaze over, for instance when discussing how different life insurance types could be used to fund long-term care, etc. It all did remind me, again, that I need to get going on doing a living will and things like that. Few of us are really expecting to exit the planet in the coming days, but it happens unexpectedly all the time. The detail Casey went into about RMD (required minimum distributions on investments), the importance of Roth IRA’s, various types of annuities, etc. was helpful. He made good points throughout; one that stood out was to not be so adverse to taxes on investments that you put your money into something that will make a lower return, thereby letting “the tail wag the dog.� The book is written in basic, easy-to-read language, and is full of charts and illustrations to make it more helpful. Throughout, there are stories about various people the firm has worked with and how they used strategies effectively. Considering this is a book presumably written to give away at seminars, it’s surprisingly detailed and helpful. I plan to keep it as a good reference, and I’d recommend "Job Optional" to pretty much anyone. ...more |
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not set
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Feb 2025
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Feb 07, 2025
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Kindle Edition
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| 1911413813
| 9781911413813
| 1911413813
| 4.18
| 33
| 1955
| Oct 03, 2016
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liked it
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I’m glad Lisa got me started on Dean Street Press books–they republish older books and the covers have a vintage vibe that I really enjoy. The two boo
I’m glad Lisa got me started on Dean Street Press books–they republish older books and the covers have a vintage vibe that I really enjoy. The two books of theirs I’ve read so far have both been good in that vintage, no-politics way that I find myself wanting these days. And, if you follow them on social media, they often offer a book free. That’s how I found myself the proud owner of a digital copy of “A House on the Rhine.� Author Frances Faviell is English, but lived in Germany for a while in the post-WWII years, which is the setting for this book. It’s about a large family living in Cologne. The father was a German prisoner of war and was traumatized by the experience, recalling on various occasions time he spent in a cage. “I did my duty to my country. There’s nothing left for my family,� he thinks. He still goes to work, but has largely given up trying to have much influence over his 11 children. He is a deep thinker, and that’s not a comfortable thing to be in the 1950s. Wandering inside Cologne’s cathedral, “he thrust away the thought about not laying up treasure, [and] another and much uglier one took its place. Had all these priceless objects been lying here while people starved at the end of the war? What about ‘Sell all that thou hast and give to the poor�?� The mother, Moe, kind of baffled me. At times the author describes her as kind and loving (“Moe never complained of her neighbours, and no beggar was ever turned from her door. Since the extra kitchen had been put in upstairs there had been peace. If she resented the contemptuous attitude of her neighbours she never said so�), but I did a double-take more than once as she called one daughter “dirty as well as lazy,� another a slut, and referred to a grandchild multiple times as a brat. She came across as really harsh to me, despite the medal she earned for bearing more than 10 kids for the Third Reich. Maybe she was just disillusioned, since now that the reich was in the rearview mirror, all those kids just meant poverty and difficulty in finding housing for her family. The family is sort of like a dysfunctional version of of the VonTrapps, giving musical concerts with the kids, who ranged from young to around 20. But an older daughter has a child out of wedlock and is pregnant with another. Two older sons (and that daughter) get involved in gang that commits crimes against “the Occupation,� people of US/French/English descent who live in Germany post-war. And the crimes aren’t cutesy, but include murder. One brother carves a word into another’s back, in anger. It’s all a bit grisly. So, the slapping, murdering, name-calling, etc. was not really what I was expecting from this book. But, it was an interesting look into what it probably was like in Germany in the 1950s. I had never thought much about this period and place. And, there were details here and there that brought back fond memories of my 2019 trip to Germany, like hanging bedding out of the windows to air. So German (or at least European)! An older adopted daughter is a bright spot in the family, being so sweet and wholesome. I was really rooting for her to end up with her American boyfriend. The book is compelling and I definitely wanted to keep reading to see how things would end up for all these messy characters. If you’re interested in the time and place, you may enjoy “A House on the Rhine.� ...more |
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Jan 2025
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Jan 16, 2025
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Paperback
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| 0679744398
| 9780679744399
| 0679744398
| 4.05
| 137,156
| 1992
| Jun 29, 1993
|
really liked it
|
When one of the girls was in high school, she introduced me to "The Road" by Cormac McCarthy. I read it and was amazed by the impact it made on me. La
When one of the girls was in high school, she introduced me to "The Road" by Cormac McCarthy. I read it and was amazed by the impact it made on me. Later, I read McCarthy's "Outer Dark," and while it didn't affect me as much, I still recognized and appreciated the quality of the writing. When I found a copy of another book by McCarthy, "All the Pretty Horses," in a little free library, I was quick to take it.* This is book one of his "Border Trilogy," which are described as Westerns. In "Horses," we meet 16-year-old John Grady Cole, who lives on a ranch in Texas in the 1950s. Disillusioned with his fractured family and his grandfather's death, Cole takes off on horseback for a new life of adventure in Mexico. Joining him is his friend Rawlins, and along the way they pick up another cohort, a young teen who calls himself Blevins. McCarthy's writing is something you really have to experience to truly understand. He creates great images with his writing at some times, but at other times I found myself reading a sentence or two over, not sure exactly what had happened. He often features dialog without tags of who said what, and it can become confusing to know who's speaking. I was struck by the faith McCarthy has that his readers will follow what he's saying and keep reading, both by these things and also by his habit here of throwing in large portions of dialogue in Spanish. I mean, a LOT of dialogue. As an author, I try to make things easy and understandable for my readers. McCarthy is having none of that! And his works are very famous so that has worked for him. Still, this is not an easy reading experience. It will make you think. "He lay listening to the horse crop the grass at his stakerope and he listened to the wind in the emptiness and watched stars trace the arc of the hemisphere and die in the darkness at the edge of the world and as he lay there the agony in his heart was like a stake. He imagined the pain of the world to be like some formless parasitic being seeking out the warmth of human souls wherein to incubate and he thought he knew what made one liable to its visitations. What he had not known was that it was mindless and so had no way to know the limits of those souls and what he feared was that there might be no limits." This would be an interesting passage to discuss as it called I Corinthians 10:13 to mind for me. And no, this is not a Christian book, but I'm always making connections with how even fictional characters might be changed by the Bible. The McCarthy works I've read are all undoubtedly "dark." In this one, there are plenty of graphic fights with injuries due to guns and knives. People and animals are killed. Even the descriptions can be harsh, for example: "Bye and bye they passed a stand of roadside cholla against which small birds had been driven by the storm and there impaled. Gray nameless birds espaliered in attitudes of stillborn flight or hanging loosely in their feathers. Some of them were still alive and they twisted on their spines as the horses passed and raised their heads and cried out but the horsemen rode on." See what I mean? No Amish romance here! McCarthy is known for the vivid descriptions he creates. I've never been to Mexico (and despite the descriptions here, I have no desire to go), but I did enjoy some of the things he mentioned that reminded me of my Latin America trip, to Peru: women washing off the sidewalks in front of their shops in the mornings as they prepare to open up, packs of roaming dogs. "... he (John) felt a loneliness he'd not known since he was a child and he felt wholly alien to the world although he loved it still. He thought that in the beauty of the world were hid a secret. He thought the world's heart beat at some terrible cost and that the world's pain and its beauty moved in a relationship of diverging equity and that in this headlong deficit the blood of multitudes might ultimately be exacted for the vision of a single flower." I gotta say, passages like that give me goosebumps. Still, in large part due to all the Spanish, I don't think I'll venture into the remaining books of this trilogy. At some point I'd like to read his "No Country for Old Men" since I've heard of the movie by that name. *Side note about this book being required reading in schools (my copy in the little free library had a student's name written on the spine, and other markings made it clear that it was used in school): come on! I read all the stats about many people never reading another book after leaving school. While this book was good for me, it was pretty hard to get into and I can see how being required to read books like this could turn off many people to reading. I mean--on the one hand, I hate to 'dumb down' reading in schools. On the other hand, surely there is some middle ground regarding books that kids could learn from and enjoy without having to read things this dense? Maybe? Just thinking. ...more |
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Jan 2025
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Jan 11, 2025
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Paperback
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| 9798988418689
| B0DJWKX9X5
| 4.15
| 20
| unknown
| Jan 15, 2025
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really liked it
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A while back, I read Jubilee Walker book 1, “The Powell Expeditions.� In that book, the fictional Jubilee Walker goes on expeditions exploring the Col
A while back, I read Jubilee Walker book 1, “The Powell Expeditions.� In that book, the fictional Jubilee Walker goes on expeditions exploring the Colorado River and the Grand Canyon. Now Tim Piper has a new release about Jubilee called “The Northern Pacific Railroad.� I didn’t know much about this part of history, so I dug in. I’ve found Piper to always include lots of historical people and details in his books, making them an enjoyable way to learn some history. In this book, young Jubilee accepts an offer from financier Jay Cooke to finish mapping out part of the route of the proposed railroad. Much of the book follows his adventure with his team as they do this. It was interesting to read what was involved in mapping out a railway route (hint, lots of skirmishes with Indians and conflicts with immature/rowdy colleagues). Some characters from Book 1 made repeat appearances, although you wouldn’t have needed to read it to enjoy this one. Jubilee and girlfriend Nelly get married. I have to admit, I wasn’t liking Nelly nearly as much here as I did in the first book. She is a liberated woman, having gotten involved in the women’s suffrage movement. She expresses far more opinionated thoughts and does far more of her own volition than I think most women of the day would have, and various times I kind of wished Jubilee would find another girlfriend. But he doesn’t, so I will leave this fictional couple to their own lives ...more |
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Jan 2025
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Jan 07, 2025
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Kindle Edition
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| B071YX225C
| 4.17
| 88
| unknown
| May 03, 2017
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really liked it
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A few years back, I read C.S. Lewis' "Till We Have Faces." I'd read that it was his favorite book he'd ever written, although it was new to me. I real
A few years back, I read C.S. Lewis' "Till We Have Faces." I'd read that it was his favorite book he'd ever written, although it was new to me. I really enjoyed it, and Daughter #3 did as well. She was talking about re-reading it lately, and I decided that that would be a great way to begin the new year. So I did, but remembering how I found the 2nd part of the book difficult, I thought I could benefit from some commentary. So, I found that our library carried "A Reading Companion: Till We Have Faces" and I checked it out to read along with the book. I enjoyed "Till We Have Faces" again, and actually even enjoyed part 2 this time as well. I found this commentary basically a synopsis. Helpfully, the author (a high school lit teacher) began by including the myth of Psyche and Cupid, upon which "Faces" is based. For each chapter, she includes questions to ponder. Actually, I'd prefer that she would answer those questions, but oh well. Here are some interesting things from the companion that I highlighted. I'm aware that some of these may not make a lot of sense is you haven't first read "Til We Have Faces": * "When Lewis had first attempted the story, he was an atheist. He even says, 'In my pre-Christian days she (Orual) was to be in the right, and the gods in the wrong.' But, writing now as a Christian, Lewis 'changed the very center of the story, from an angry and justified accusation of the gods to a new awareness that the problem lies with us." * Famous quote from 'Faces': "I wonder do the gods know what it feels like to be a man." * Once she has traveled to become the god's wife, Psyche "is operating in a reality where she is fully aware of the natural and spiritual planes whereas Orual is limited to her own selfish mindset. They do not see the same way." Much of this read, I was annoyed with Orual and her selfishness--moreso than the first time I read it. * "'Affection ('storge') should work toward making itself unneeded, but, as a natural love, in itself it has no power to do so.' The conversation that follows merely proves the point. With absolute consistency Orual reacts sharply. She wants Psyche to need her, and Psyche does not. It is the same possessive distortion of affection mentioned before." This whole line of thought is something I'm spending a lot of mental time on lately. "Always Orual considers her loves in terms of what they contribute to her, not what she should contribute to them." This is an area I need to work on! * "She (Psyche) explains to Orual how their best time on earth has come and gone"--I found this part of the conversation so touching (and relatable) in "Faces." As we get older, I suspect we'll have more and more of this type of conversation. * "If the gods are real according to Psyche, then Orual must see them and this palace. Orual sounds much like Thomas demanding to see Jesus, 'Unless I see in his hands the mark of the nails, and place my finger into the mark of the nails, and place my hand into his side, " will never believe.' As Orual demands to see the palace, Psyche is horribly crushed because they have been standing on the palace steps the entire time." This calls to mind what it can feel like to discuss faith with a non-believer. * "Now Orual wishes her veil was on, implying her need to hide from the truth and from the Fox's need for truth. Hood asks us to consider if this is the first suggestion in the story 'that her physical ugliness was a symbol for her spiritual ugliness.'" * More familiar "Faces" quotes: "The one sin the gods never forgive us is that of being born women" ... "There must be something great in the mortal soul. For suffering, it seems, is infinite, and our capacity without limit." * In the end of the book, Orual presents the gods with her complaints, but she realizes that "the complaint was the answer" since her complaints, like Job's, were the truest words she'd ever expressed. "With these words, Orual can say that nothing stands between her and the gods any longer ... She is now 'bareface' and asks, 'How can they meet us face to face till we have faces?' This is such a complicated thought for my students that I always ask them to paraphrase this question, especially in light of what Lewis may mean as a Christian in relation to God. We could say, 'How can God meet with me, be with me, until I know who I am, until I know who I am in Him?'" * Lewis wrote to Katherine Farrer that "Faces" is "the story of every nice, affectionate agnostic whose dearest one suddenly 'gets religion,' or even every lukewarm Christian whose dearest gets a Vocation.' The divide is clear." I apologize that this review is probably a little "out there" if you haven't read the book. But if you're up for a thought-provoking read into the deeper aspects of life, belief, and Christianity, give it (and especially, "Till We Have Faces") a read. ...more |
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not set
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Jan 2025
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Dec 29, 2024
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Kindle Edition
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| 1310395144
| 9781310395147
| B011XBCKZC
| 4.43
| 420
| Dec 2013
| Jul 17, 2015
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it was amazing
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A sweet way to spend an hour!
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1
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not set
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Dec 2024
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Dec 28, 2024
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Kindle Edition
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| 0143037730
| 9780143037736
| 0143037730
| 3.68
| 655
| 1999
| Aug 29, 2006
|
liked it
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Mozart: is there any musician who isn't a fan? I have loved his fancy, fingers-flying piano pieces since childhood, and in college I loved the film "A
Mozart: is there any musician who isn't a fan? I have loved his fancy, fingers-flying piano pieces since childhood, and in college I loved the film "Amadeus." In high school, I somehow heard his oboe concerto (probably from a library record) and made a goal of learning it. I did, playing it at ISSMA district and state. Beautiful piece! I think his Fantasia in D Minor was the first piece I played at Federation Piano contest, and at my first "me only" piano recital I played Concerto #17 in G Major by Mozart. Gorgeous stuff. So, when a friend gave me a copy of "Mozart: A Life" that the school had discarded, I thought it would be fun to read. This is a biography of Mozart, but I despite it being in the high school library, I wouldn't classify it as a child's or young person's book. Despite being "just" 163 pages, the writing was pretty dense and it took focus (for me at least) to read it. I was reminded of my goal in writing my biography of King Ludwig II, where I tried to focus on all the interesting parts and write them in a compelling way. Peter Gay didn't seem to try this. Not that either my way or his is "right," they're just different. Some things about Mozart that I found interesting in this book: * Mozart was one of 7 children born to his parents, and just 2 survived. This was typical of the 1700s time period; the author tells of parents who gave each of their six sons the name Edward, hoping one would live to pass it on. It was a wise decision since indeed only one survived. * In Mozart's time, music was seen as entertainment in that often while artists were playing, the audience did not sit quietly listening as they do today. Instead, they talked, ate, etc. * Mozart loved to travel, saying, "Without travel, at least for people from the arts and sciences, one is a miserable creature! ... A man of mediocre talents always remains mediocre, may he travel or not--but a man of superior talents, which I cannot deny myself to have without being blasphemous, becomes--bad, if he always stays in the same place." Interesting observation. * Gay contends that the stereotype of Mozart being poor throughout his adult life is not really accurate; he earned enough that he should have been able to make a decent living based on that. However, similar to Wagner and some other musicians, he had an issue with spending beyond his means. * Mozart definitely had periods of depression, but his music has many happy interludes, unlike, say, Tchaikovsky, "who virtually invited his listeners to recognize, if not quite share, his deep depressions." Ha * Gay writes about Mozart's love of opera; he may have been at his happiest when writing operas. "I only have to hear people discuss an opera, I only have to be in a theater, hear tuning up--Oh! I am quite beside myself right away," he told his father. I must say, having watched so many operas now, that Mozart's are some of the least interesting to me--sadly. The music is great, but many of the plots are "lite"/comedic, etc. Gay goes into particularly "The Magic Flute," an opera with a truly weird plot and strange characters. He points out that there is a lot of Masonic symbolism in this opera, which makes sense since Mozart was a Mason. "The listener must struggle to understand--or, perhaps better, to set aside--the plot for the sake of the music." Agreed! You may enjoy this book on Mozart if you're interested in classical music. ...more |
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not set
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Dec 2024
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Dec 22, 2024
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Paperback
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| B0DQJWZRXW
| 4.65
| 17
| unknown
| Dec 14, 2024
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None
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Notes are private!
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1
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Dec 16, 2024
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Dec 17, 2024
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Dec 16, 2024
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Kindle Edition
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| 1696614031
| 9781696614030
| 1696614031
| 4.16
| 13,983
| Apr 05, 2024
| Apr 05, 2024
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really liked it
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A friend had read and reviewed “Sipsworth,� which gave me the idea to give it a try. It’s the story of Helen, an 83-year-old woman who has lived in Au
A friend had read and reviewed “Sipsworth,� which gave me the idea to give it a try. It’s the story of Helen, an 83-year-old woman who has lived in Australia for 60 years but recently returned to her native UK to finish out her life (" � it was where she had been born and the place she had returned to now that the business of life had been settled�). Her husband and son have died, and she’s alone. “Everyone she has ever loved or wanted to love is gone, and behind a veil of fear she wishes to be where they are.� “I wasn’t always like this. You’ve caught me at a bad time,� Helen tells a small mouse she discovers in the trash, and the two are off, forming an unlikely friendship. Spurred on by the mouse, Helen expands her circle of friends. We learn some about her past (although at the book’s end, I still had several unanswered questions about this and was curious), and her zest for life increases. There was a whole bit involving a medical drama with the mouse that was not as intriguing to me, but overall this was a really nice story about an animal and an older person, kind of in the vein of “A Man Called Ove.� “You know what your gift to the world is, Sipsworth? � It’s that you bring out the best in people,� Helen tells her mouse. She mentions various times not believing in a higher power, and every time I see this in a book, I wish the character stating it could reconsider. Ah, but I know I can’t try to evangelize fictional people ...more |
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Dec 2024
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Dec 15, 2024
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Audiobook
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| 3988320099
| 9783988320094
| B0BWFNTD7Y
| 4.33
| 99
| unknown
| Jun 06, 2023
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liked it
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“Bliss Road: A Memoir about Living a Lie and Coming to Terms with the Truth� appealed to me because it’s about the author’s dad’s high-functioning aut
“Bliss Road: A Memoir about Living a Lie and Coming to Terms with the Truth� appealed to me because it’s about the author’s dad’s high-functioning autism aka Asperger’s Syndrome. This is a condition I’m well acquainted with, and I’m drawn to books on the topic in hopes of finding further insights about it. Author Martha Engber is my age (we apparently were even born on exactly the same day), and had suspicions, growing up, that her dad was “different.� Her mom realized this as well, thinking “What is wrong with him? He never listens. It’s not worth getting a divorce over.� He had odd eating habits including many sauces he’d make himself based on health-related theories he came up with, often based on increasing his lifespan. He didn’t have friends since they would disrupt his schedule. He had a strong sense of duty. It was difficult to have a conversation with him, since instead of give-and-take, he’d speak more in a series of monologues. When Engber would talk on the phone to him as an adult, after asking just a few basic questions of her, her dad would lead the conversation onto something, for instance, he’d recently found interesting in the Wall Street Journal rather than something personal. When Engber’s mom developed cancer, her dad “acted against her best interest time and again and seemed unaware of how his behavior negatively impacted her, especially during her last and worst year.� Told that home healthcare aides would be helpful, he turned them down due to not wanting “strangers� in his house. At some point as an adult, Engber’s realization that her dad wasn’t normal increases, and she searches for answers. She realizes that her dad most likely had Asperger’s Syndrome, or high-functioning autism (this diagnosis didn’t even exist for most of his life). Most aspects of Asperger’s described her dad’s behaviors, from a “flattened affect� (meaning that the person shows little emotion) to a preference for one’s own company to a hyperfocus on a narrow range of interests. Other common traits of the condition are unusual eating habits, various sensory sensitivities, and social awkwardness. All this was fairly interesting to me. But the second half of the book seemed, in my opinion, to go off the rails a bit. Engber theorizes that her mom also had Asperger’s, although I didn’t feel she presented much evidence for this. I think it’s more likely her mom was “aspergated,� a term coined to describe the way those living with someone with Asperger’s often begin displaying some symptoms of it themselves (usually as a coping mechanism). In fact, when a therapist suggests Engber may have Asperger’s herself, she becomes very upset (I’d suggest she probably was a bit aspergated herself). The second part of the book also dealt heavily with Engber’s journey into healing through therapy and self-awareness. This all was of little interest to me, as was the lengthy free-form poetry that she inserts throughout. I’d hoped for more of her childhood with her dad and her insights from that. ...more |
Notes are private!
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1
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not set
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Dec 2024
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Dec 14, 2024
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Kindle Edition
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| B0BPX7SF89
| 4.12
| 82,712
| Sep 19, 2023
| Sep 12, 2023
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really liked it
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A difficult book to review; I listened on audio but there is so much going on and so much inter-connectedness that I think this might be better read?
A difficult book to review; I listened on audio but there is so much going on and so much inter-connectedness that I think this might be better read? However, the audio was very good with various readers for the different chapters and characters. I would definitely pick up more if I read or listened again. Beautifully written book, kind of a collection of stories. Some are really compelling, others less-so, but be forewarned that just when you are thinking that one chapter is kind of a dud, a few pages later there will be a connection to a previous section that redeems it and makes various things make sense. I can't imagine all that would go into the amount of interweaving there is in "North Woods"; I give Daniel Mason a lot of credit for that. He is a smart guy, and one who writes lyrically gorgeously as well. People and phrases make repeat appearances, tying everything together. There are plenty of ghosts as well, which Mason uses to help show the continuity of life on a plot in the New England "North Woods." It's nice to watch the parade of people, trees, animals, and even bugs and organisms that inhabit the place over the centuries. Very circle-of-life. ...more |
Notes are private!
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1
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not set
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Jan 2025
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Nov 30, 2024
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Kindle Edition
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my rating |
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| 4.32
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really liked it
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Apr 2025
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Apr 15, 2025
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| 4.72
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really liked it
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Mar 2025
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Mar 20, 2025
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| 4.71
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really liked it
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Mar 2025
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Mar 11, 2025
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| 4.09
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it was amazing
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Mar 2025
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Mar 11, 2025
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| 4.00
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really liked it
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Mar 2025
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Mar 01, 2025
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| 4.01
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liked it
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not set
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Mar 01, 2025
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| 3.80
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liked it
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Apr 2025
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Feb 28, 2025
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| 4.05
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really liked it
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Mar 2025
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Feb 12, 2025
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| 4.23
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it was amazing
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Feb 2025
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Feb 08, 2025
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| 4.18
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it was amazing
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Feb 2025
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Feb 07, 2025
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| 4.18
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liked it
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Jan 2025
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Jan 16, 2025
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| 4.05
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really liked it
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Jan 2025
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Jan 11, 2025
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| 4.15
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really liked it
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Jan 2025
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Jan 07, 2025
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| 4.17
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really liked it
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Jan 2025
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Dec 29, 2024
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| 4.43
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it was amazing
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Dec 2024
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Dec 28, 2024
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| 3.68
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liked it
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Dec 2024
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Dec 22, 2024
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| 4.65
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Dec 17, 2024
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Dec 16, 2024
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| 4.16
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really liked it
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Dec 2024
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Dec 15, 2024
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| 4.33
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liked it
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Dec 2024
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Dec 14, 2024
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| 4.12
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really liked it
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Jan 2025
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Nov 30, 2024
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