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

Code Name Verity - Thoughts and Quotes

Code Name Verity by Elizabeth Wein was published about a year ago (but I'm linking to the soon to be released paperback because I like the cover so much better than last year's hardcover), and after reading several glowing reviews on other blogs, I added it to my mental TBR list and finally got to it in March. I really like WWII stories, and though that seems rather sensationalist or gruesome on the face of it, I do have more thoughtful reasons. Not only are the stories of suffering and survival amazing and often inspiring, but there are so many facets to that historical time period - so many different experiences in so many different places - that I always learn more than I expected. Perhaps that's it: there is always something unexpected to discover in every WWII account, whether fiction or non-fiction. Code Name Verity is certainly no exception to my experience of finding the unexpected and learning new things in WWII literature!

So I came to this story with just a little bit of foreknowledge since the reviews I had read were careful to avoid spoilers. All I knew as I started reading was that it was an amazing story of friendship and involved flying. To be perfectly honest, I almost gave up on it, and even told a friend who likes YA literature not to bother, because at the outset it seemed to be only a thinly veiled propaganda in support of women in combat, to which I am categorically opposed. Take this quotation, for example:

"Maddie cowered next to him, her arms over her head, listening to the hideous rattle of the gunner sucking air into blood-filled lungs. Queenie slapped her.
'Get up, girl!' she ordered. 'I won't have this. I'm your superior officer giving orders now. Get up, Brodatt. If you're scared, do something. See if you can make this gun work. Get moving!'
'The shell needs to be loaded first,' the gunner whispered, lifting a finger to point. 'The Prime Minister don't like girls firing guns.'
'Bother the Prime Minister!' exclaimed the superior officer. 'Load the...gun, Brodatt.'" (65-66)

But I kept reading, and found this rebuttal late in the book (Maddie, Brodatt, and Kittyhawk all refer to the same young female pilot):

"'It is a pity we cannot keep you, Kittyhawk,' said the man whose house it was. 'You were born to be a soldier.'
Huh. Makes me quite puffed up with pride and yet fills me with scorn all at the same time - what rubbish! I wasn't born to be a soldier. There's a war on, so I'm delivering airplanes. But I don't go looking for adventure or excitement, and I jolly well don't go around picking fights with people. I like making things work. I love flying." (270)

So my first objection was resolved. But then there were the moral dilemmas the two friends, Maddie and Queenie, faced by their involvement, however direct or indirect, in the war effort. Let me clarify that I do believe that WWII was a just and necessary war, but the atrocities of war are not meant to be faced by women. Maddie and Queenie realize this as they talk about their fears and their roles of pilot and special intelligence officer.

"'Not doing my job properly,' Maddie explained. 'Failing to live up to expectations.'
'A bit like my fear of killing someone,' Queenie said, 'but less specific.'
'It could include killing someone,' said Maddie.
'It could.' Queenie was sober now. 'Unless you were doing them a favor by killing them. Then you'd let them down if you didn't. If you couldn't make yourself. My great-uncle had horrible cancers in his throat and he'd been to America twice to have the tumors taken out and they kept coming back, and finally he asked his wife to kill him, and she did. She wasn't charged with anything - it was recorded as a shooting accident, believe it or not, but she was my grandmother's sister, and we all know the truth.'
'How horrible,' Maddie said, with feeling. 'How terrible for her! But - yes. You'd have to live with that selfishness afterward, if you couldn't make yourself do it. Yes, I'm dead afraid of that.'" (77)

"'I'm not blameless,' said Maddie. 'Every bomber I deliver goes operational and kills people. Civilians. People like my gran and grandad. Children. Just because I don't do it myself doesn't mean I'm not responsible. I deliver you.'
'Blond bombshell,' Queenie said, and sputtered with laughter at her own joke. Then she began to cry." (165)

I will try to avoid spoilers also, so I can't say more about the moral dilemmas other than the fact that they become even more intense and personal as the narrative progresses.

In spite of these initial hesitations, however, I must say that I soon became thoroughly captivated by this story. It is amazingly well-crafted - right up there with Lord Peter mysteries by Dorothy Sayers, in my mind. It's not a mystery, per se, but the truth is only revealed slowly, and there were several plot twists that I did not expect. The story-telling device is unique, but not difficult to follow. The writing style was not particularly noteworthy, but neither was it annoying (a welcome relief), and there were several passages that I found particularly moving.

"'I'm looking for verity.'...
'Truth,' I said at last, in English.
'Truth,' she agreed...
'Verity,' I said in English...Then gasped: "'Truth is the daughter of time, not authority.'" And: "'This above all, to thine own self be true.'" I gibbered a bit, I confess. 'Verity! I am the soul of verity.' I laughed so wildly then, that the Hauptsturmfuhrer had to clear his throat to remind me to control myself. 'I am the soul of verity,' I repeated. 'Je suis l'esprit de verite.'" (131)

"Now they were over the ghostly white cliffs of eastern Normandy. The Seine's loops shone like a great unwinding spool of silver mesh off the port wingtip. Maddie gasped a the river's inadvertent loveliness, and all at once she found herself spilling childish tears, not just for her own blessed island, but for all of Europe. How could everthing have come so fearfully and thoroughly unraveled?
There were no lights over France; it was as blacked out as Britain. Europe's lamps had all gone out." (157)

Then, as usual, I found fascinating bits of WWII information, such as the perpetual use of Daylight Savings Time in England during the war (apparently this was true in America, too).

"In fact Maddie didn't fly at night for a while after she'd clocked the hours and had her logbook stamped, and she had a difficult time keeping in practice because she used it so little. Since 1940 we have not come off daylight-saving at all, and in summer it is double, which means for a whole month it doesn't get dark till nearly midnight." (139)

Even with all my mixed impressions as I read this book, I would definitely recommend it to an older teen or adult reader. The moral perplexities would be too intense for a younger reader, in my opinion. Is it an amazing WWII story? Yes, absolutely! The author's research is evident, and she has written a very plausible, though fictional, tale. It is incredibly well-crafted, and I do love a well-crafted story where all the pieces fall into place one by one. Do I agree with the actions of the characters? No, on principle I don't, but I can recognize and sympathize with the impossible situations and moral conundrums with which those who opposed the evils of Nazi Germany were faced.

Summertime and the Reading is Easy, Part II

Part 1 covered June, Part 2 July. Maybe I'll get Part 3 done (and posted) before summer is over (and you can interpret that as either the end of August or when fall starts on September 22nd). ( :

The Mysterious Benedict Society by Trenton Lee Stewart
Carrie has written about her love for this series many times, and I'm glad to have finally embarked on the journey. This book is clever, intriguing, and full of adventure that any child (or adult) should enjoy. I especially liked the mind puzzles and the way the characters' strengths and weaknesses complemented one another perfectly. I think my daughter could handle the reading level now, but I'm going to wait a few more years to introduce her to this series when she should be better able to enjoy the subtleties of the narrative.

The Distant Land of My Father by Bo Caldwell
After reading City of Tranquil Light, I was curious about this previous novel by the same author. To be quite honest, I think that it is hardly worth comparing the two. While they both include an insider's perspective on the changes in China throughout the 20th century, this one is told through the experiences of a very dysfunctional family, dysfunctional and disrupted mostly due to the husband and father who loved Shanghai and the easy money he could make there more than his wife and daughter. His selfishness brought many tragic consequences, and while there was a bit of redemption at the end, it really struck me as too little too late - at least in terms of making it a meaningful story for me.

On a side note, I did a bit more research about the author, and found this very interesting first-person account of her life and conversion to Roman Catholicism. I'm sad that her faith is so shaped by experience, believing as I do that the Scriptures and sound doctrine provide a much more stable foundation. But after much consideration, I've decided that it does not diminish my opinion of City of Tranquil Light, for the faith of the characters in that book is tried and genuine. It's obviously not a book that is meant to teach doctrine, but insofar as it speaks of God and the Christian life, I still think it presents a accurate picture.

Plain Truth by Jodi Picoult
I didn't like it, but it was one of those books that I had to keep reading just to see what happened. I even lost sleep over it, staying up late because it was so hard to put down. But I still didn't like it, not one little bit. Like most modern novels it included too much information about intimate relationships between unmarried men and women. And the ending - well, it was just unnecessary. At least everyone in my book club agreed with this consensus, and we're returning to 19th century classics for our next selection!

The Penderwicks: A Summer Tale of Four Sisters, Two Rabbits, and a Very Interesting Boy by Jeanne Birdsall
If you haven't noticed, I have to do some therapeutic reading after I've read a book that leaves a a bad taste in my mouth. So I had checked this one out from the library as an option for my daughter (I like to have a wide variety of titles for her to choose from) and decided that "a summer story about four sisters, two rabbits, and a very interesting boy" would be just the thing after the Picoult novel, not to mention that I love the cover art! It was certainly light and easy, and the characters were written so that I felt I knew them quite quickly. On the downside, one thread of the story involved a pre-teen crush on an older boy. Disobedience and lying were justified by a positive outcome or by the meanness of the adult making the rules. So I won't be handing this to my 8-year-old anytime soon. In a few more years, she can read it, and we'll talk through the issues, for there were certainly many fun and funny parts, too.

Thunderstorm in Church by Louise A. Vernon
See my earlier comments on two other books by the same author which we read aloud earlier in the summer, as this one was very similar and my opinions haven't improved any. This one was interesting for the glimpses into life in Luther's busy household, but the dialogue... {shudder}

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!

February 2012 Reading List

We're doing better at actually finishing read-aloud books this year, probably because I love historical fiction set in the Middle Ages! My own reading was a bit on the lighter side this month, but still thought provoking at times.

The Door in the Wall by Marguerite De Angeli
This is a heart-warming tale of a nobleman's son who seems to have lost everything when illness renders him lame. However, with the help of a kind monk, he regains both physical strength and hope for the future, learning to look for the silver lining, or as Brother Luke says, "to find the door in the wall," an opportunity for courage, perseverance, and thankfulness in the face of obstacles. Eventually, Robin quite literally goes through a door in the wall on a dangerous mission for which he is uniquely suited in his lameness, proving to himself and others that his illness has not robbed him of usefulness and purpose. Amazon reviews are full of complaints that kids think this book is boring, but it worked great as a read-aloud!

The Help by Kathryn Stockett
Of course, plenty has already been written about this novel. Like many others, I quickly became engrossed with the characters' unique voices and stories. It was an enlightening glimpse into Southern culture in the midst of the civil rights movement and the general unrest of the 1960's. Only one part seemed really out of place, that is, Aibileen's sympathetic acknowledgement of homosexuality in her recollections of previous employers. Sadly, it seems that almost all modern novels must have a token homosexual. Is that really necessary to appeal to the masses, or is it merely to placate the politically active minority? I'll continue to be politically incorrect and voice my objections to blatant disregard for God's order and Word!

A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L'Engle
Unbeknownst to us when my book club chose this for our February selection, A Wrinkle in Time was published 50 years ago and was celebrated with some fanfare in the publishing world this month. It's interesting, if a little odd at times, but I agree with Janie at Redeemed Reader that the inherent mysticism and dualism is neither biblical nor Christian. We listened to the audio version, read by Madeleine L'Engle herself, before I reread the book, and I wish I'd waited a few more years before introducing it to my daughter. Most of the subtle distortions of Christian truth were over her head, although I commented on a few obvious ones. We'll probably revisit it when she's older and better able to discern and discuss truth and error. For now I'll comfort myself that Little House and Narnia books are the usual fare for audio books around here.

I Am Half-Sick of Shadows: A Flavia de Luce Novel by Alan Bradley
Flavia de Luce: she's awful, but it's still fun - and British - so I keep reading every new installment. I thought this one got off to a slow start, although it was fun to have something of a reunion of characters from the other novels. Am I the only reader who keeps expecting Harriet to waltz in and save the estate after living in seclusion with some remote people group in the Himalayas for all these years? Well, that's another reason I keep reading this series. That seems to be THE unsolved mystery - her death is always taken for granted - but why hasn't Flavia thought to investigate that one (apart from the intensely personal nature of the case and the fact that it would require travel and money which even she can't conjure up in the chemical lab)?

The King's Shadow by Elizabeth Alder
If my children were reading this on their own, this would probably be best for older readers, for it deals with the gruesome reality of war and various injustices inherent in the Medieval feudal system. Yet in spite of the hardships Evan, the main character, encounters, it is a story of hope, courage, loyalty, forgiveness, and justice. It worked just fine as a read-aloud to my almost 8 and almost 5-year-olds, who could understand it in terms of good guys/bad guys, and it really made history come alive as we studied the Battle of Hastings in our history studies. I also enjoyed reading it aloud because there was such a good balance of description, dialogue, action, and reflection - it kept me interested, and it was fun to try to vary my voice to the mood and setting of various passages. The historical characters and events seem fairly accurate, but even if the author took some poetic license, it provides such a vivid picture of various levels of Medieval life, I could recommend it for the social and cultural insights alone.