Books Read in 2013

(updated June 2014)

Links are to reviews (only a few) or Amazon.

January
Christmas with Anne by L. M. Montgomery, edited by Rea Wilmshurst
Laddie by Gene Stratton-Porter
The Story Girl by L. M. Montgomery



February
Coop: A Year of Poultry, Pigs, and Parenting by Michael Perry
The Dirty Life: A Memoir of Farming, Food, and Love by Kristen Kimball

March
Code Name Verity by Elizabeth Wein
Bogwoppit by Ursula Moray Williams - one of my favorite books from childhood!
Speaking from Among the Bones by Alan Bradley
The Golden Road by L. M. Montgomery
Little Britches by Ralph Moody

April
No Name by Wilkie Collins
A Severe Mercy by Sheldon Vanauken - a bit too idealistic for pragmatic ideas of romance, but it made for really good book club discussion.

May
Lit!: A Christian Guide to Reading Books by Tony Reinke
Cry, the Beloved Country by Alan Paton
Beauty: A Retelling of the Story of Beauty and the Beast by Robin McKinley - fairy tales for vacation reading! I really liked this one, but the next one was only so-so.
The Curse of the Thirteenth Fey: the True Tale of Sleeping Beauty by Jane Yolen


June
Unnatual Death by Dorothy Sayers
The Sanctuary Sparrow by Ellis Peters
Anna Karenina [Books 1-2] by Leo Tolstoy

July
Anna Karenina [Books 3-5] by Leo Tolstoy
Call the Midwife: A Memoir of Birth, Joy, and Hard Times by Jennifer Worth

August
Anna Karenina [Books 6-8] by Leo Tolstoy

September
Notes From The Tilt-A-Whirl: Wide-Eyed Wonder in God's Spoken World by N. D. Wilson - Not everyone will like N. D. Wilson's style, but I love it - this was an amazing book to remind me of the sovereign character of God. I used to have deep thoughts like this, and it was refreshing to follow his stream of consciousness reflecting upon the greatness of our God!
Heidi by Johanna Spryi

October
A Lady's Life in the Rocky Mountains by Isabella Bird - true confession: I didn't finish it. It was for our book club, and I got about halfway through before we met and just wasn't interested enough to finish it.

November
The Dean's Watch by Elizabeth Goudge - Goudge writes such quiet, beautiful tales with excellent character development.

December
Linnets and Valerians by Elizabeth Goudge - As much as I love Goudge's adult novels, her children's books just aren't quite the same. There's something a little sinister about the magic in them. They aren't just fanciful, fantastic tales such as E. Nesbit writes. Maybe the magic is too realistic, too close to actually being voodoo or witchcraft, but at any rate they always leave me a bit unsettled about whether I like it or not, and reserved about recommending them.

Chapter books read-aloud to kids:
Treasures of the Snow by Patricia St. John
The Indian in the Cupboard by Lynne Reid Banks
Susan Creek by Douglas Wilson
The Magic Pudding by Norman Lindsay - We didn't like this one much at all, or we're just too far removed from turn-of-the-20th-century Australian humor and vocabulary to really get it. Oh, well.
The Enchanted Castle by E. Nesbit
The House of Arden by E. Nesbit - Wonderful, wonderful book! One of our favorite authors, and one of her best books - a wonderful adventure with magic, time travel, and treasure!
The Return of the Indian by Lynne Reid Banks
Abel's Island by William Steig - We found this a bit tedious.
Two Williams by Douglas Wilson
Swallowdale by Arthur Ransome - the second of the Swallows and Amazons series (we listened to an audio version of the first one. My whole family loves their adventures, and it makes me wish childhood could be like this again with a good balance of responsibility, freedom, and adventure.
Ginger Pye by Eleanor Estes

Out of the reading funk - December 2012

Well, I'm still catching up from last year, but I got this posted just in the nick of time (one minute to spare!) to write up my December reads in January. Bear with me. I might catch up or even stay current eventually.

November found me in the grips of a serious reading funk (which I mentioned here). I thought perhaps it was the format in which I was reading, since I read several books in a row on my Kindle. But I'm currently doing that again, and it hasn't forestalled my progress, so I'm left to conclude that Three Men in a Boat is simply funk-inducing. My sincerest apologies to Jerome K. Jerome fans, but I just don't get it.

Interestingly enough, the book that jump-started my reading energies was the very book in preparation for which I read Three Men in a Boat. Oh, the irony! I loved To Say Nothing of the Dog by Connie Willis! Mystery, time travel, history (both WWII and Victorian era), lots of literary references, and a little tasteful romance - perfect! I must say that it was completely unnecessary to have read Three Men in a Boat in order to enjoy and understand this book. In fact, if any books would be helpful to understand the plot, it would be Dorothy Sayers' Lord Peter Wimsey mysteries, particularly those with Harriet Vane, and those certainly are worth reading, as you can surmise from my glowing reviews here, here, here, and here!

After a homeschooling friend mentioned George MacDonald's At the Back of the North Wind, I decided to refresh my memory of this fantasy tale by one of my favorite authors. I love George MacDonald's novels because they are Scottish and full of the sovereignty of God. His adult fantasy novels are more difficult to understand and appreciate (you can read my thoughts on Lilith, for example), but his children's fantasy is generally sweet, good, and uplifting, if a bit heavy-handed in moralizing (see my reviews of The Princess and the Goblin and The Princess and Curdie). At the Back of the North Wind falls somewhere in between fantasy and fiction, for there are parts that are most certainly dream-like and mystical (and a bit weird, at times), but other parts that provide a glimpse of healthy home-life and honest good work. It has to be understood in the context in which it was written, as I don't think this would have seemed so odd or out of place to his Victorian readers, who would have most likely understood some classical references much better than I did. I will probably read this aloud to my kids in a few years, as I think I would be good to talk about some of the more unusual parts and clarify some of the symbolism. Eventually, I may also write an entire post about this one, as it certainly gave me much to think about. Note: the free Kindle version which I read omitted much of the poetry, so I had to borrow a copy from the library to fill in the blanks. I should really leave a review and a request for that error to be corrected.

Finally, sometime between Thanksgiving and Christmas (probably before the previously mentioned titles, but it's less significant in my mind), I read another of the Irish Country Doctor series by Patrick Taylor. An Irish Country Girl is the 4th in the series, and I liked it best of all I've read so far (I believe there are 7 books now). As a flashback to the youth of Dr. O'Riley's housekeeper, Kitty, it seems more quaint and charming, and more essentially Irish, than the other books. I suppose I have a rather romanticized view of Ireland which this fostered, and I also enjoyed the more traditional, rural setting along with its more traditional values.

I also read Blackthorn Winter by Douglas Wilson in December in order to preview it for my daughter. She read it in January, and I plan the read the rest of the series aloud. I'll include my thoughts in a summary post once we've read them all.

For read-alouds, we enjoyed some Christmas classics, including The Best Christmas Pageant Ever by Barbara Robinson (along with the 1986 movie by the same title) and The Twenty-Four Days Before Christmas: An Austin Family Story by Madeleine L'Engle. We also read plenty of Christmas picture books, of which some favorites were A Certain Small Shepherd by Rebecca Caudill, The Little Fir Tree by Margaret Wise Brown, and The Christmas Miracle of Jonathan Toomey by Susan Wojciechowski.

Fall Reading - the catch-up edition

With the start of home schooling (K & 3rd grade) and various weekly church activities, I haven't had much time for reading these past few months. Additionally, I fell into a serious reading funk, which I think was due more to the mode (Kindle) than the material, although at least one title was funk-inducing in and of itself (more on that later). So, briefly (I hope), here is what has been read during the fall months (September - November).

(If you're visiting from a Read-Aloud-Thursday link, the read-alouds are at the bottom.)

North and South by Elizabeth Gaskell
This was an enjoyable classic, and I'm glad I gave Gaskell another chance after reading Cranford a few years ago. I wouldn't say she's one of my favorite British authors, but it was a well-paced, period piece in which the characters brought the distinctions of industrialized England into sharp focus. Aside from a few melodramatic scenes, which seemed out of place for the very reserved characters, it had none of the silly pettiness of Cranford.

The Red House Mystery by A. A. Milne
Did you know A. A. Milne wrote more than Winnie-the-Pooh? Murder mysteries, to be exact? Well, this was a fun diversion, if not a very complex plot, and I'd recommend it.

Three Men in a Boat by Jerome K. Jerome
(Who names their child Jerome Jerome?) This is described as a comic travelogue, but for some reason I just wasn't in the mood for such humor. I think (I hope) it was intended as a parody on idle young gentleman who think too highly of themselves, but I had my fill of that with Brideshead Revisited. Now Three Men in a Boat was not so disheartening as Brideshead, but for some reason it put me in a real reading funk, perhaps because I didn't have a real grasp for it's size on the Kindle and it seemed rather interminable. I found it soooo tedious, yet I kept reading thinking it would surely get better. There were, in fact, a few interesting historical divergences in a vast sea of stream of consciousness rabbit trails, but it still took me more than a month - a month! - for me to read this relatively short book. I persevered, mostly because I thought it would be helpful to have the background before reading To Say Nothing of the Dog. This more recent time-travel story sounds fascinating, but the original was so disappointing that I'm almost afraid to start it.

The Hobbit (or There and Back Again) by J. R. R. Tolkien
If I had nothing better to do, I'd spend a year or so reading Tolkien's entire corpus. I find that his idea of "true myth" gives me much to ponder, though it's all too easy to get caught up in the adventure and miss the broader truths. I appreciated the read-along posts on Redeemed Reader this November, particularly this one which explores his true myth concept in more detail.

Yes, we've seen the movie. I loved parts of it and was really irritated by other parts. That almost always happens with books adapted to screen, especially when I've just read the book before seeing the movie. With more distance I might be able to appreciate the movie for its own merits, but not this time.

Harry Cat's Pet Puppy
Chester Cricket's Pigeon Ride
Harry Kitten and Tucker Mouse
Chester Cricket's New Home
by George Selden
Yes, we've read them all, and if there are more I don't want to know! While it was a pleasant journey, the sequels aren't as good as the original Cricket in Times Square. I think E. B. White knew what he was doing when he brought Charlotte's Web and The Trumpet of the Swan to a satisfying close and didn't try to capitalize on whatever success they gained. If your children are voracious readers, I'm sure they would enjoy these continuing tales of unlikely animal friends. However, I'm a little sorry that we spent so much time on these read-alouds when there are so many other wonderful children's classics to read.

Such as Homer Price and Centerburg Tales by Robert McCloskey!
These books are just downright fun bits of Americana. Since I grew up in a small Ohio town not far from Robert McCloskey's own hometown, these stories just ring true to me. I'm afraid I might even pick up the dialect a little too well! My kids love them, too! They are funny enough to appeal to kids, but there's some subtle humor for the grown-ups, too.

Our home school co-op of 6 families read Homer Price for a book club week, and each family acted out one chapter, which was loads of fun! While the older kids did some art and map projects, the younger children then did activities related to Make Way for Ducklings - another favorite of mine!

Summertime and the Reading is Easy, Part III

August was a very busy month, so my reading was rather limited and still on the lighter side. On a positive note, we have returned to a more normal home schooling schedule, so the kids and I are making better progress with our read-aloud titles, even fitting in some just for fun, not merely those that complement our history studies, which are usually fun, too, of course.

Further Chronicles of Avonlea by L. M. Montgomery
This was more therapeutic reading after the Jodi Picoult novel I read in July, but then any excuse to read Montgomery will do! I read this on my Kindle, so I didn't get to enjoy that pretty cover. I do find the Kindle to be a very good format for short stories, however, since it's easy to take along with me and read when I have a few minutes here or there. Of course, reading Montgomery is delightful, and I heartily recommend these stories for refreshment from modern novels!

The Extraordinary Education of Nicholas Benedict by Trenton Lee Stewart
It's rather convenient to start reading a series when it is mostly complete (I did that with the Harry Potter books, too). You don't have to wait months for the latest installment, and, in this case, when a prequel is released, you can read it before finishing the later books to have some better insight into the characters. Of course, you may choose to differ with my approach, but I generally prefer to take things chronologically whenever possible. Anyway, all preferences aside, this book was available from the library sooner than the 2nd volume of the Mysterious Benedict Society, and I thoroughly enjoyed it. I was rather pleased with myself that I figured out the mystery very early in the book, but I won't give it away. For a much better analysis of the book, see Janet's review at Across the Page.

The Virgin in the Ice The Sixth Chronicle of Brother Cadfael by Ellis Peters
I've said before how much I enjoy the Brother Cadfael mysteries - they include almost all of my favorite things: history, theology, mystery, just a little romance in good taste (none of the too-much-information of modern novels). I'm not sure why I haven't read more than six of them in the past two years, but I guess it's kind of like saving the best for last. I want to draw out the enjoyment of this 21-book series, so I read them sparingly. I think I might need to reconsider that approach, however, since I was reminded once again how satisfying they are.

Here are a couple quotations just to tease you:

Beautiful prose: "The branches of trees sagged heavily towards the ground under their load [of snow], and by mid-afternoon the leaden sky was sagging no less heavily earthwards, in swags of blue-black cloud." (17)

Tidbits of wisdom: "It was all too easy to turn honest anxiety over someone loved into an exaltation of a man's own part and duty as protector, a manner of usurpation of the station of God. To accuse oneself of falling short of infallibility is to arrogate to oneself the godhead thus implied." (88)

Read aloud:

Huguenot Garden by Douglas M. Jones III
This is a family-centered story set in 17th century France when Louis XIV persecuted the Protestant Huguenots. It was well-written and informative, but also simple enough and suspenseful enough to keep my children captivated. Without being overly dramatic or graphic, the author conveyed the faith and sacrifices that were required of Reformed believers during dangerous times, uniquely centering the story on twin girls, two of six children in the family, so that one experiences the full effects of persecution from an innocent perspective.

One chapter focuses on the baptism of the family's new baby, so it provided a good format for discussing the differences between paedobaptism and credobaptism. (Our church is unique in that we have both paedobaptists and credobaptists on our pastoral staff. Recognizing that both views have been held by godly men throughout Church history, we do not divide on this issue, and we all love one another, too!) I only mention this since Baptists might want to be prepared to answer questions if you read this to your kids (aim for understanding, not condemnation).


Tucker's Countryside by George Selden
We also read this sequel to The Cricket in Times Square, which we had listened to on CD earlier in the summer. The sequel isn't nearly so good as the original, in this case, but the animals are cute and their adventures entertaining. There were, however, two aspects that I didn't particularly care for.

First, Tucker's Countryside has a rather overt message of saving the meadows and forests from the bad City Councilmen who want to build apartments. Now stewardship is all fine and good as long as it doesn't become a god unto itself, but this is exactly what our culture has done. I always try to temper stories like this with the caveat that God gave us the earth to use and to take care of, and that people who are made in His image are always more important than animals. Sometimes that might mean that it is better to build apartments than save the meadow.

More disturbing, however, is the situational ethics employed by the animal characters who justify lying and deception as a means to a greater end. Now obviously it's just fiction - animals don't talk or make rational decisions to lie in real life. But at the same time, I don't want to leave my children with the idea that it's OK to tell "little white lies" or intentionally deceive others just because cute animals did it in a book and everything turned out fine. So we talk about it - just brief little questions such as, "Do think that was the right thing to do?" But hopefully those questions will build discernment. I appreciate Carrie's thoughts on this topic recently, too.

Summertime, and the Reading is Easy, Part I

We took a family vacation in June, which meant that I got more reading time than usual! It also meant that many of my reading selections were a little on the lighter side, but I would still highly recommend several of them.

City of Tranquil Light by Bo Caldwell
Every so often, I open a book and find a sense of quietness and purpose - perhaps holiness is the word I'm looking for - that makes me take a deep breath and settle in for refreshment, encouragement, and challenge to a greater life of faith. Most often, I think this happens with biographies, so to find a novel that evokes this deep satisfaction is truly rare (Stepping Heavenward is the only other that I can recall). But City of Tranquil Light is one of those special books, one that I borrowed from the library and then ordered two copies (one to keep and one to give away) before I was halfway through, and I've ordered eight more since then. I could tell you more, but I'd rather you just borrowed or bought your own copy and savored it yourself! I usually don't promote book purchases here, but as of this writing, Amazon has hardback copies of this book for the bargain price of $2.74, and I believe you would find that to be money well spent! (You can follow the links to Amazon from either the book's picture or title.)

Enna Burning by Shannon Hale
This second installment in the "Books of Bayern" series from Shannon Hale was much darker than The Goose Girl, and I didn't enjoy it nearly as much. I suppose it's a story of friendship, a coming of age story laced with a great deal of pride and lack of self-control, and there is really nothing unusual in those themes in young-adult literature, though the fact that something is common does not mean I should condone it. I'm not sure if the author intended for there to be any moral lessons or analogies, but when I started trying to think through the implications of some of the imagery, it seemed far too pantheistic for me to even want to explore those trains of thought. Maybe that's why it left me with such an unsettled feeling, and why I finished it simply to be done, not because I enjoyed it.

The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency by Alexander McCall Smith
I've seen recommendations for this series by Alexander McCall Smith on many blogs, and my daughter has enjoyed listening to his mysteries for kids. So when I found this at a children's consignment store (of all places!), I added it to my summer vacation reading bag. I've said before that mysteries are my favorite genre, but I do prefer full-length novels to short stories. I like a very well-developed plot, though I will make an exception for Sherlock Holmes (who wouldn't!). At any rate, this initially seemed very disjointed, as the chapters jumped back and forth between Mma Ramotswe's family history and various cases she'd solved more recently. Eventually, a case develops that somewhat ties everything together, but overall it just wasn't my cup of tea. I'll stick with Lord Peter Wimsey and Brother Cadfael when I need my mystery fix.

Royal Children of English History by Edith Nesbit
Have I mentioned that I have a Kindle? It will never replace real books for me, but the free classics and public domain works are lots of fun to explore. (All of L. M. Montgomery's short stories for free? Yes, please!) So this was a short little book that I read as a bonus for our book club's "British Royalty" theme in June. I expected it to be stories from the childhoods of various kings & queens, but it was more a children's history, a simple retelling of the most common anecdotes or deeds of valor of notable English princes or kings. I'm sure my children would enjoy this as a read-aloud if I could fit it into the schedule.

The Little White Horse by Elizabeth Goudge
This is a very sweet fairy tale set in a secluded valley of Victorian England with good guys, bad guys, and some highly intelligent and helpful animals. There is a very large "dog," who turns out to be a lion, but that is the extent of any parallels to Narnia, I think. There is not much grace or redemption, but only trying very hard to be good, which I would consider a bit overly idealistic if I were reading this only for instruction in morality. That is not the only purpose of a good story, however, and I appreciated the beautiful descriptions and gentle blend of fantasy and reality. I must say that I find an old-fashioned morality tale to be much more enjoyable than many modern novels that include too little morals and too much information, so you can read this one without regrets.

Read-alouds:
The Beggars' Bible and Ink on His Fingers by Louise A. Vernon
These are interesting for their historical perspective, but the story line is extremely repetitive - a young boy is distressed (obsessed) about what he will do when he grows up then crosses paths with a historical figure (John Wycliffe and Johann Gutenberg, in these books) and finds direction for his life. They are heavy on dialogue, and that dialogue is often forced and stilted. The author seems to have done her research thoroughly, but her use of anecdotes and dialogue is extremely awkward. I'm glad we read them aloud, as my kids probably learned more than reading them on their own, but all of us found it challenging to stay interested at times.

The Fantastic Flying Journey by Gerald Durrell
This is an imaginative story about an eccentric uncle who takes his niece and twin nephews on a trip around the world in an amazing and well-equipped hot air balloon. The purpose of the trip is to find Uncle Lancelot's brother, a naturalist, so they follow his trail and meet many animals in their natural habitats around the world. This one is both fun and educational, and my daughter finished it ahead of my reading it aloud, so I know she liked it a lot. I was pleased that it did not have an overt evolutionary slant. In fact, I can't recall if there were any allusions to evolution, but that could be my faulty memory. We found this at our library book sale, and we highly recommend it!