Portraits: Of Flowers and Shadows by Anna Kirwan & The Physick Book of Deliverance Dane by Katherine Howe

Of Flowers and Shadows was a very quick read and yet a very enjoyable story. The book is a novel which takes Winslow Homer's painting of  Girl and Laurel and gives subject matter and meaning for this piece of art. The author sets this story in Massachusetts where the actual modeling took place and in the time frame of  the painting, the year of 1879. Winslow Homer (1836-1910) was an American artist that was mainly taught by his mother as he only took a few art classes. He first came into the public eye as a special war correspondent illustrator during the Civil War.


The Physick Book of Deliverance Dane was very interesting with a pace that kept you reading. Having read several novels depicting the Salem witch trials of 1692 from various angles, this one presented yet another possibility ... that witchcraft was real.  Genealogical research has shown the author has family connections to two of the accused women:  Elizabeth Howe, who was hanged and Elizabeth Proctor who survived the trials. I'm sure this was the reason she presents the novel in the manner she does .... moving between contemporary time and the historical time of the witch trials with both time periods taking place in Massachusetts. Caused me to reflect upon how the actual people experienced this event that is a part of the American history. I did decide that I would have preferred living the rest of my life as the accused instead of the accusers and hopefully I would have had the opportunity to move far away from it all. I am sure that there were several generations that needed healing. 

 

99 Sayings by M. Basil Pennington; Thomas Keating: The Spiritual Senses & On Prayer

Short books that are full of wisdom and written by monks. M. Basil Pennington (1931-2005) was a monk at St. Joseph's Abbey in Spencer, Massachusetts; Thomas Keating is a monk currently serving at St. Benedict's Monastery in Snowmass, Colorado but he also served at St. Joseph's Abbey in Spencer, Massachusetts with Pennington.  Check out this site to view the beautiful St. Joseph's Abbey:   http://www.spencerabbey.org/ 

To review these books I am going to post a few of the sections I highlighted for future reviewing:

99 Sayings by M. Basil Pennington

True centering prayer cannot but bring us into the kingdom of heaven. We may not experience it in any sensible way. but in faith we know it is so. And we will see it in our lives, as wer become more and more determined to do the will of the Father in heaven.

Do we think we are more capable than our Lord himself? How many times in the course of his few years of ministry did he not send the crowd away flee away to a solitary place, even when everyone was seeking him with their very legitimate and pressing needs. Even the Son of man needed his time with the Father to be refreshed and renewed for his ministry.

We need those times of prayer when we listen not just with our ears, our eyes, our minds, but more with our hearts, with our whole being. It is outside the time of prayer that we will begin to see the difference, as the fruits of the Spirit begin to flourish in our lives.

It would be a great mistake to try to do the prayer "right.": It is, rather, making space in our lives, both in regard to time and to mental attitude and desire, to allow God to reveal to us our true selves in the eyes of his love and to bring us to the freedom of the sons and daughters of God. Some things can only be known by experience. That is true of this kind of experiential prayer. "Be still and know that I am God" (Psalm 46:10). "Taste and see how sweet the Lord is" (Psalm 33:9).


The Spiritual Senses by Thomas Keating


..... listening to the heartbeat of the Savior, which is the purpose of contemplative prayer and its mysterious resting

..... when we taste something, we transform it into ourselves; it becomes a part of us
..... this is not a presence through a concept or feeling but a presence through faith. One awakens to the undifferentiated presence of God beyond concepts, feelings, and particular acts, except to maintain the intention of loving, reverent waiting upon God
..... fidelity to the interview day by day proves one's sincerity and determination to grow in this deepening relationship with Christ
.....to commune is to rest in each other's presence and to enjoy the mutual gift of each other's presence without saying or doing anything, except perhaps to hold hands. The personal gift of oneself to God and of God to us is exactly what contemplation understood in its rational meaning, is

On Prayer by Thomas Keating

..... the word "repent" does not refer to penitential exercises or external practices but means change the direction in which you are looking for happiness
..... not only are we not who we think we are, but other people are not who we, or they, think they are. Our judgments about our character and other people's characters --- and the reality of the world within and around us ---are largely incorrect. We see everything upside down or from the perspective of downright ignorance
..... the question of our relationship with God is crucial. There are, of course, as many relationships with God as there are people.
..... the God of Christian faith becomes a human being in the person of Jesus and, in doing so, becomes not only one with the human family as a whole, but one with each of its members in particular
..... in the beginning, external silence and solitude are very helpful in order to develop the habit of listening to God's presence beyond the noises and preoccupations of everyday life or the particular environment we may be in. With practice we learn to integrate external noises into our prayer without either resisting them or paying any attention to them.
..... God's first language is silence. As soon as we put the deep knowledge of God into words, we have interpreted it. Every translations is in some degree an interpretation.
..... We believe that god is already present. Hence, there is no place to go to find him and no need to run away from ourselves
..... The ego acts as a  kind of bridge from the past to the future, hindering us from every being where God actually is, which is in the present moment
..... We pray in secret when in our hearts alone and in our recollected spirit, we address God and reveal our wishes only to Him. Hence, we must pray in utter silence


     

Sojourners Article: The Key Lesson We've Forgotten by Carol Osborn

Want to keep this article as this is the path I'm taking:  https://sojo.net/articles/key-lesson-weve-forgotten-our-rush-beat-old-age     and this link: http://consciousagingalliance.org/   

Receiving the Day Christian Practices for Opening the Gift of Time by Dorothy C. Bsss

This book is my first reading by Dorothy C. Bass but will not be the last.  She has a wonderful way of starting with the day that God has given to each of us and weaving it into the liturgy, the Sabbath, the Christian year, showing how we are drawn into the story of God with our days and how we can experience "fullness of time" and learn to "count our days." Very helpful for me in planning my devotional time for the coming Christian year of 2015-2016.  Following are quotes from various authors reviewing this book:

Walter Wangerin, Jr.: "With wisdom, clarity, and sacred practicality, Dorothy Bass changes our relationship with Time. It needn't control us. Rather, the day, the week, and the year are each an opportunity for us to shape our lives in the peace and kindness of God. God's story becomes our story. This is a book of genuine insight and gentle leadership. Let it turn your calendar from a taskmaster into a gift from the Creator for creation and for you."

Bonnie J. Miller-McLemore: "This deeply spiritual book dramatically reorients the heart of the reader...challenging our time-obsessed society and teaching the wisdom of religious practices." 

 Roberta Bondi: "A profoundly useful book ....It reminds us forcibly that we are embodied creatures gifted by God with time too precious to fritter or work away. In its recommendations for healing our relationship to time it is often unsettlingly revolutionary, frequently subversive of our secular culture, and always full of of Dorothy Bass's honest and generous reflections on her own life. It is a pleasure to recommend it."

  

Open Mind Open Heart by Thomas Keating

This is probably the third time I have read this book but blog posting never happened because the other  readings took place "before sixty." Thomas Keating is a Cistercian priest, monk, and abbot. He presently resides at St. Benedict's Monastery in Snowmass, Colorado. He is the founder of the Centering Prayer Movement and of Contemplative Outreach.  Here is the link for the site:   www.contemplativeoutreach.org  

Chapter One: What Contemplation Is Not 

There is much popular misinformation in people's minds about what contemplation is. Saying what it is not may help to put a perspective on what it is. The first thing contemplation is not is a relaxation exercise. It may bring relaxation, but that is strictly a side effect. It is primarily relationship, hence, intentionality. It is not a technique, it is prayer. When we say "Let us pray," we mean, " Let us enter into a relationship with God," or, "Let us deepen the relationship we have," or, "Let us exercise our relationship with God." Centering prayer is a method of moving our developing relationship with God to the level of pure faith. Pure faith is faith that is moving beyond the mental egoic level of discursive meditation and particular acts to the intuitive level of contemplation.

I'm hoping to re-read several more books now that the garden "has been put to bed for the winter." Without gardening, my exercise has to be intentional, which is hard for me and "going walking" without the Beagles is even harder.     

Christian Mystics edited by Paul de Jaegher & The Way of the English Mystics by Gordon L. Miller

From the introduction of the Mystics of the Middle Ages, An Anthology of Writings  by Paul de Jaegher:

Speaking to the first place of understanding, is it not a law of love always to want to know the beloved object better? We cherish and are interested in everything that enhances the quality of the loved one, everything which shows us new aspects of him, everything that helps us to penetrate more deeply into his soul. Understanding increases love and love needs ever to grow, so it is always trying to feel the charms of the beloved in a new way. If that is a characteristic of human friendship and love, then it will not be different with the love of God, and the truly Christian soul is always anxious to know more about the object of her love, God, and the country where He shall be possessed and enjoyed, Heaven. She loves God above all ad more than herself, He is her sovereign preoccupation, and it is an ever new happiness to know more of Him. Now God reveals himself to us first analogically, in the beings that we live among. Unhappily but few souls are habituated to looking beyond creatures to the Creator. However, we have other than this analogical knowledge which tell us nothing, for example, of the mystery of the Holy Trinity. God Himself has com to our aid and unveiled to our faith the truths of the three Divine Persons, His love for us, and its grand manifestations: the Incarnation, the Redemption, the Eucharist, the sojourn of God in the sanctified soul. He reveals Himself to us in the books of the Old Testament, which speak to us magnificently of God's power, wisdom, justice, loving-kindness, and mercy. The New Testament records the love-able virtues of the Word made flesh: the Gospels must always be the favorite book of a religious soul. Then, to teach us yet more about God and His ways, we have the teachings of the saints. Those who left mystical writings especially tell us high things about God, His attributes, and His dwelling in the soul. The saints can only babble of what they have seen of the Unseeable, understood of the Incomprehensible, learned from the touch of the bodiless Spirit. They touch us deeply, because they are the result of the direct experience of men like ourselves, who tell us, if I may put it so, about the "reaction of the human soul" to the near approach of her highest good and last end, God.  

This book Includes the writing of:  St. Angela of Foligno (1248-1309), John Ruysbroeck (1293-1381), Henry Suso (1295-1366), Richard Rolle (1300-1349), John Tauler (1304-1361), The Author of The Cloud of Unknowing, Julian of Norwich (1342-1415), St. Catherine of Siena (1347-1380), Walter Hilton (d. 1396), St. Catherine of Genoa (1447-1510), St. Teresa (1515-1582), St. John of the Cross (1542-1591), St. Francis de Sales (1567-1622).


Gordon L. Miller's The Way of the English Mystics An Anthology and Guide for Pilgrims presents seven mystics from England: Richard Rolle, Walter Hilton, Julian of Norwich, Margery Kempe, the anonymous author of The Cloud of Unknowing, William Law, and George Herbert.

The Christian mystics represented in this book speak to us from different eras of the religious life of England, and they convey a variety of its aspects. Five of them -- Richard Rolle, Walter Hilton, the anonymous author of author of The Cloud of Unknowing, Julian of Norwich, and Margery Kempe -- are drawn from the medieval period, specifically the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, the era that could be considered the golden age of English mysticism. George Herbert and William Law represent a later, more secular age -- the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries -- though their devotional standards and practices were certainly no less rigorous than those of their predecessors.  All of these writers, with differing emphases and distinctive forms of speech, convey the message that we exist in the embrace of a mystery, a divine mystery touching us at the very center of ourselves, of which we are but dimly aware. They develop the themes of humility, of inner detachment, of love and service to others and of meditative prayer as aspects of the spiritual life, as ways of realizing and responding to the mysterious touch. These writers also emphasize, in one way or another, that the spiritual life is a process, a pilgrimage. To engage in this inner pilgrimage requires no outer excursions at all. But all such pilgrims, it seems, seek to participate in something larger than themselves -- in the common spirit of fellow pilgrims, or in the universal Spirit that is their deepest stimulus and ultimate goal. The spirit of pilgrimage has always been close to the heart of mysticism. The essence of pilgrimage, whether inner or outer, is not, strictly speaking, the seeking of a certain kind of spiritual experience; it is, rather, the pursuit and practice of living from a deeper dimension. In cultivating a sense of the sacred, the essential and perennial human task is the preparation of a fertile inner field of stillness and spaciousness, so that the holy can take hold and bear fruit.                                                                                             ..... from the introduction

Discernment by Henri Nouwen (1932-1996) with Michael J. Christensen & Rebecca J. Laird

 "The premise of this book is that God is always speaking to us -- individually and as the people of God --  at different times and in many ways: through dreams and visions, prophets and messengers, scripture and tradition, experience and reason, nature and events. And that discernment is the spiritual practice that accesses and seeks to understand what God is trying to say. The books we read, the nature we enjoy, the people we meet, and the events we experience contain within themselves signs of God's presence and guidance day by day."   from the Preface

Sections of The Power of Memory and The Mystery of Memory 

from Chapter Eight Opening Your Heart:Discerning Divine Presence

 Although memory brings the painful past closer in the present, it also creates a deep desire for reunion with those I remember and for reconciliation with what is past. The power of memory is not only that it allows me to relive the past but also that it transforms the past in the present and the future.   For example, I feel closely related to many friends who have died. I remember them in faith and expectation that I will see them again. The memory of those I love makes me desire a reunion, a new encounter face-to-face. In some mysterious way, in the absence of a loved one from the past, I sense a spiritual closeness in the present that prepares me for a reunion in the future that is deeper and fuller than their presence in the past or their presence in the present. I can even say that I must remember those in the past to make full reunion possible in the future. Their memory is in a certain sense preparation for seeing them again. Remembering grandparents, parents, brothers and sisters, and friends who have died or gone away is not just some sentimental, pious custom of those who can't move on; it is the continuation of a relationship that still exists and has yet to come to fulfillment. Indeed it is the Spirit of Christ that tells us there is a coming reunion more profound than the relationship in the past or present. Would it be true to say that remembering a friend or family member in death allows for a spiritual communion to develop that was not fully realized during their physical presence? Can we say that memory unites us in spirit with a connection deeper than physical union?  If so, we must confess that bodily presence not only reveals the real person to us but also hides the real person from us. One's physical presence both reveals and hides the deeper, more authentic self that I desire to encounter. In physical absence, the spiritual presence is no longer blocked. This mystery sheds new light on life and death. Being fully alive means being truly present to God and others as best we can. Dying means not only leaving but also entering into a more intimate relationship and a deeper spiritual presence than was possible during physical life.

If remembering a loved one who has died sometimes brings one closer to the spiritual reality or essence of his or her presence in memory, then the memory of Christ likewise brings me closer to Jesus than even his physical presence on earth could do. His death, his leaving me behind, has made it possible to receive his Spirit and to live in and with him always. The memory of Christ brings me into spiritual communion with him and with his body, the church. This insight gives power and meaning to the words of Jesus "It is good for you that I go because unless I go, the Advocate will not come" (John 16:7). In the memory of Jesus, we receive his Spirit and enter into a mysterious communion with him that is deeper and more intimate than if he had been with us physically and historically. In the very act of remembering Christ, we not only recall the past reality but somehow see Christ in the future event. 

The Henri Nouwen Society has lots of information:  www.henrinouwen.org

Learning to Walk in the Dark by Barbara Brown Taylor

Becoming acquainted with Barbara Brown Taylor through reading Leaving Church: A Memoir of Faith, An Altar in the World: A Geography of Faith and now Learning to Walk in the Dark has given strength to my spiritual journey. Our Contemplative Prayer Group finished this book in May and as a result of the group discussions, it was filled with gemstones for me that I would have missed without their insight. I am indeed blessed with this wonderful group and I thank God for bringing us together.

It took a few chapters for the author to get the foundation established for the reader to have an understanding where the book was guiding you. You keep finding mindsets you have on darkness that has influenced your paths. But as the book jacket tells us "Taylor is our guide through a spirituality of the nighttime, teaching us how to find God even in darkness, and giving us a way to let darkness teach us what we need to know."   

My copy of this book is really marked which is what I use when I review a book at a later time ... may as well start on page one for this book. Taylor begins chapter one with this appropriate scripture: "I will give you the treasures of darkness and riches hidden in secret places, so that you may know that it is I, the Lord, the God of Israel, who call you by your name. Isaiah 45:3."   Here is one of the many quotes scattered throughout the book: 

There is a tendency for us to flee from the wild silence and wild dark, to pack up our gods and hunker down behind city walls, to turn the gods into idols, to kowtow before them and approach their precincts only in the official robes of office. And when we are in the temples, then who will hear the voice crying in the wilderness? Who will hear the reed shaken by the wind? ... Chet Raymo, The Soul of the Night

And at the end of the book the prayer of Thomas Merton from his book, Thoughts in Solitude.

My Lord God, I have no idea where I am going. I do not see the road ahead of me. I cannot know for certain where it will end. Nor do I really know myself, and the fact that I think I am following your will does not mean that I am actually doing so. But I believe that the desire to please you does in fact please you. And I hope I have that desire in all that I am doing. I hope that I will never do anything apart from that desire. And I know that if I do this you will lead me by the right road, though I may know nothing about it. Therefore I will trust you always though I may seem to be lost and in the shadow of death. I will not fear, for you are ever with me, and you will never leave me to face my perils alone.

Meditations On the Monk Who Dwells in Daily Life by Thomas Moore

This beautiful gift book was purchased at a used book store many years ago and remained unread until June when I was in need of readings that were short. The timing was so perfect that I place this experience in what is called "when the fullness of time came."  This section is from the author's foreword explaining these meditations:

While our society may not seem terribly interested these days in monastic life, it is clearly hungry for a kind of spirituality that is neither divorced from ordinary life nor escapist in tone. We may not need new leaders and new philosophies as much as the recollection of old images from the past. Monasticism may appear to be dying, but that fading of a way of life offers us an unusual opportunity to regard it with increased imagination, drawing its lessons and attractions into our own lives, no matter what external shape our work and home life may take. The ghosts of the monks still speak. We have only to listen to them with subtle attentiveness.

This is one of the meditations that spoke to me and gave a new word .... Melisma.

 Sometimes in their chanting monks will land upon a note and sing it in florid fashion, one syllable of text for fifty notes of chant. Melisma, they call it. Living a melismatic life in imitation of plainchant, we may stop on an experience, a place, a person, or a memory and rhapsodize in imagination. Some like to meditate or contemplate melismatically, while others prefer to draw, build, paint, or dance whatever their eye has fallen upon. Living one point after another is one form of experience, and it can be emphatically productive. But stopping for melisma gives the soul it reason for being. 

The Lessons of St. Francis by John Michael Talbot with Steve Rabey

I am much more familiar with John Michael Talbot's music than I am his writing. I was introduced to his music with the Heart of the Shepherd album a very long time ago when I was recovering from pneumonia.  He is a musician, teacher, and writer who practices the Franciscan traditions. In 1980 he founded Brothers and Sisters of Charity, a monastic community located in Eureka Springs, Arkansas, based on the Franciscan principles of simplicity.  Another Franciscan monk and author of The Journey and the Dream, Murray Bodo, gives this review for the book:

This small wisdom book combines personal narration with practical advice to cut across all religious traditions. Through the universally loved life and works of Francis of Assisi, the author weaves a guidebook of spirituality for moderns. The whole tapestry works because the strands are strong and reliable. The reader is invited to take up those threads and make, not a medieval tapestry, but a refashioned modern life after the pattern of St. Francis.

Talbot's album entitled Troubadour of the Great King consists of musical versions of the favorite scriptures ad prayers of St. Francis. 

The Ordinary Princess written and illustrated by M.M. Kaye

A delightful fairy tale to read when resting from gardening. It was so refreshing to my body and mind that it  prompted me to locate the big book of The World's Best Fairy Tales and read a few favorites from my youthful energetic days. In the foreword, M.M. Kaye says she created this story about Princess Amethyst in an apple orchard in full bloom in the county of Kent in England. Not once did she remember needing to use her eraser as the story wrote itself. And the illustrations scattered throughout the book are contrasts between the ordinary and the ornate. The adventures of the seventh princess was just as Fairy Crustacea said "being ordinary will bring you more happiness."        

Portobello by Ruth Rendell

There isn't anything like finding an author that is "new to you" that offers forty years of books just waiting for you to read.  If her other novels are anything like Portobello I will be a satisfied reader.  Must add her name to the list of authors/books I look for at used book stores. Portobello is a tale that weaves together the lives of several people in one neighborhood in London and the consequences that change them all.  It is written  in such a natural way that you feel as if you are actually in the neighborhood yourself and observing these happenings.  Thanks again to Gypsi for suggesting this author to me.       

The Heaven of Animals by Nancy Tillman

The perfect beauty of the art in this book cannot be described and the story so needful by anyone who has lost a dear pet.  A friend suggested we should read this book when we lost our dear Daisy Beagle. I found a copy at the library and knew I had to have my own copy.  It was indeed a comfort to us and we frequently make references to this dear book.  All pet lovers, young and old, should be friends with this book.  

http://www.amazon.com/Heaven-Animals-Nancy-Tillman/dp/0312553692/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1436322053&sr=8-1&keywords=the+heaven+of+animals

  

What happened in May & June?

I did read, but I did not blog. Reason: GARDENING, which is wonderful and satisfying but time consuming and physical.

Here is a list of young adult books I read in May for discussions with Zachary, a rising 4th grader who enjoys talking about the American history he is learning in school. I needed a review to hold up my side of the conversations, so a trip to the public library was necessary. I always refer to Zachary as my sister's grandson (Susan Wheeler Robinson 1956-2014) for continuity of her position in his life. Because of these conversations, I was able to share some Wheeler family history with Zachary: Rev. John H. Wheeler (1793-1871) fought in the Confederate Army (29th Regiment NC Troops Co. B ) as did his seventh son John Henry Wheeler (1837-1907) but his ninth son Hiram Wheeler (1847-1907) fought in the Union Army (2nd Regiment NC Mounted Infantry Co.H). The loyalty in the Wheeler family was divided as was many others in the Western North Carolina Mountains and Eastern Tennessee
.. 
Confederate Soldier and Union Soldier by Denis Hambucken
Causes of the Civil War by Shane Mauntjoy
The White House is Burning by Jane Sutcliffe
The Day Fort Sumter Was Fired On by Jim Haskins

During this time, I also read Amazing Women of the Civil War by Webb Garrison and Civil War Women edited by Frank McSherry, Jr., Charles G. Waugh, and Martin Greenberg.  Both of these books were gifts from Gypsi and  perfect reading material for these months as they were short stories. Civil War Women was compiled to show the Civil War through women's eyes in stories by such authors as Louisa May Alcott, Kate Chopin and Eudora Welty.  Amazing Women of the Civil War was truly fascinating stories of women who were more involved in the war than most women by being spies, soldiers (an estimated 300 fought on the battlefield), journalists and angels of mercy. 

Reading The Year Without Summer by William Klingaman and Nicholas Klingaman was a result of a  FaceBook post regarding weather. It is almost unbelievable how one volcano eruption really did change history.  Product review from Amazon:

Like Winchester's Krakatoa, The Year Without Summer reveals a year of dramatic global change long forgotten by history

 In the tradition of Krakatoa, The World Without Us, and Guns, Germs and Steel comes a sweeping history of the year that became known as 18-hundred-and-froze-to-death. 1816 was a remarkable year—mostly for the fact that there was no summer. As a result of a volcanic eruption at Mount Tambora in Indonesia, weather patterns were disrupted worldwide for months, allowing for excessive rain, frost, and snowfall through much of the Northeastern U.S. and Europe in the summer of 1816.

In the U.S., the extraordinary weather produced food shortages, religious revivals, and extensive migration from New England to the Midwest. In Europe, the cold and wet summer led to famine, food riots, the transformation of stable communities into wandering beggars, and one of the worst typhus epidemics in history. 1816 was the year Frankenstein was written. It was also the year Turner painted his fiery sunsets. All of these things are linked to global climate change—something we are quite aware of now, but that was utterly mysterious to people in the nineteenth century, who concocted all sorts of reasons for such an ungenial season.

   Making use of a wealth of source material and employing a compelling narrative approach featuring peasants and royalty, politicians, writers, and scientists, The Year Without Summer by William K. Klingaman and Nicholas P. Klingaman examines not only the climate change engendered by the volcano, but also its effects on politics, the economy, the arts, and social structures.

As a result of reading The Year Without Summer, I had to read Mary W. Shelley's Frankenstein which was written during that cold summer.  It proved to be a book way beyond any expectation I had formed and putting it down was very hard and reading it again will be a pleasure.

The Light from the Cloister by M. Basil Pennington, O.C.S.O.

My library has a lot of books that are authored by monks and it all started with Thomas Merton. One day I'm going to compile a list. Light from the Cloister is practical spirituality for practical Christians inspired by monastic practice. M. Basil Pennington, O.C.S.O. is a Cistercian monk of St. Joseph's Abbey in Spencer, MA. He is a teacher of centering prayer and the author of numerous books on prayer, monastic spirituality and Christian practice.

From the back cover of the book:

All people, when they reach out to God, inevitably do so in some sort of practice. It might be meditation, it might be prayer, it might be an act of work or fasting. As we reach out again and again, we fall back on habitual practices developed and refined b the great religious traditions.

Christian monasticism has much to teach us about religious practice. The twentieth century lay person can benefit from this "light from the cloister" since, ultimately, the spiritual life is the same for everyone. From the centuries-old practice of monks, we can learn anew the simple paths of silence, listening, prayer, obedience, work, fasting, peacemaking and friendship.

"When those who love God try to talk about him, their words are blind lions looking for springs in the desert."   ---- Leon Bloy

God's Echo, Exploring Scripture with Midrash by Sandy Eisenberg Sasso

This book is a ruby! It was my first experience with Midrash but will not be my last. The following reviews express my feelings:

"This book ... can change for the better the way we all look at Scripture. Not as magic but as spiritual meaning for our times. Not as mystery but as a new and real presence in our own lives." Joan Chittister

"God's Echo is a wonderful use of rabbinic stories and biblical interpretations to help us grapple with serious issues in our lives: dealing with anger, assuming responsibility, coping with bad times, taking risks, loving the stranger, enjoying life, and setting ultimate goals. In all these areas, the book helps us identify the moments when we experience God in down-to-earth, personal language so that people with no training in philosophy can grapple with some of the deepest philosophical issues that we all confront. Quite a treasure!" Rabbi Elliot N. Dorff, Ph.D.

And the author's explanation:

"Learning Midrash is more than a fascinating historical excursus; it is a personal journey....I have marveled at how much of what the rabbis wrote still speaks to my concerns and moves my soul. Even more, I remain grateful for the tools they have provided to unlock new sacred treasures, how their imagination enables me to go deeper into my own." Rabbi Sandy Eisenberg Sasso

By The River Piedra, I Sat Down & Wept by Paulo Coelho

How to summarize a novel by Paulo Coelho baffles me. I have read several of his books:  The Alchemist, The Fifth Mountain, The Pilgrimage, Brida, Warrior of the Light, and Manuscript in Accra.  He is definitely a "quotable" author, but sharing his plot lines is difficult for me.  His stories seem to always be woven with spirituality and the power of love with life and its decisions, choices, and paths with surprising twists or turns and propels the reader forward from the first page. I can understand why his novels have been translated into 43 languages.

Trapp Family Singers by Maria Augusta Trapp

This book is written by and about the life of the woman whose story became The Sound of Music.  Having never read the story, I was surprised by the first half of the book in which the family life was centered around the church year, but as Maria was starting out to be a nun, I shouldn't have been surprised at all. Here is an excerpt from the chapter of "Feasts in a Family."

"There came a time when we hardly got around to reading and singing together because we were so busy and that was the birthday season.  In a large household there are a number of family holidays which occur yearly: the birthdays and feastdays.  In our particular family we have two distinct seasons:  from the end of January to the beginning of May and again from the end of September to the first of November. My people had only celebrated the birthdays, whereas we in Nonnberg disregarded those and celebrated only the feastdays. These are celebrated on the feast of the Saint in whose honor you are named. Now we put both customs together and, since there were nine of us there were eighteen holidays right away. All great feasts of the Church have a Vigil; they start so to speak the evening before. So our family feasts were celebrated the evening before, too." 

 And another one from the Preface written on Pentecost Sunday 1949:

"While working on this book and writing down the memories of a family, it astonished, amazed and almost overwhelmed me to see how much love -- genuine, real love -- was stored up in one short lifetime: first, God's love for us His children, the leading, guiding, protecting love of a Father; and as ever real love calls forth love in return, it couldn't be any different here. The Story of the Trapp Family Singers wants to be a canticle of love and gratitude to the heavenly Father in his Divine Providence."    

 The Sound of Music celebrated the film's fiftieth anniversary this year.  Check out their site on Facebook.
www.facebook.com/TheSoundOfMusic?fref=ts

Keeping The Sabbath Wholly by Marva J. Dawn

Eugene Peterson says this about Keeping the Sabbath Wholly:  "This is a superb account of Sabbath keeping Marva Dawn show us what it looks like, how it feels. She is generous in her information -- studying the Scriptures, passing on the traditions, reflecting on the experience -- but most she simple tells us what she is doing as she does it. She comes into my life as a companion in Sabbath keeping (not as a lecturer, not as a scold) and gives me fresh heart in living more deeply into this most wonderful of all rhythms." 

Please note: This is not a book on legalistic duty but one providing methods and motivation for enjoying a day of significance. The book is divided into sections of ceasing, resting, embracing and feasting. I benefited greatly from reading this book and I'm putting together my ritual for the Sabbath Day celebration. I am convinced that the common rhythms of life are gifts to us from God which add spiritual dimension when observed and may be one of the enduring characteristic of the monastic life.

Marva Dawn's dedication of this book is an interesting one:

This book is dedicated to all the people who need the Sabbath --
the busiest, who need to work from a cohesive, unfragmented self;
social activists, who need a cycle of worship and action;
those who chase after fulfillment and need to understand their deepest yearnings and hear the silence;
those who have lost their ability to play because of the materialism and technologization of our society, who need beauty and gaiety and delight;
those who have lost their passion and need to get in touch with feelings;
those who are alone and need emotional nourishment;
those who live in community and need solitude;
those who cannot find their life's priorities and need a new perspective;
those who think the future is dictated by the present, who need hope and vision of the future to change the present order;
those who long for deeper family life and want to nurture certain values;
the poor and the oppressed, who need to mourn and to dance in the prison camp;
the rich and the oppressors, who need to learn nonviolence, stewardship and God's purpose in the world.;
those who suffer, who need to learn how suffering can be redemptive;
professional theologians, who need to bring the heart back into theology;
those who don't know how religion fits into the modern world, who need a relationship with God;

The book ends with this comparison by the author:

"When the Sabbath is finally fulfilled, our divisions and weaknesses will cease forever. We will rest eternally in God's grace and love. We will embrace his kingdom and sovereignty ultimately and perfectly. We will feast unceasingly in his presence."

 From the Preface:

"In Jadaica the Sabbath is loved as a bride or a queen. Deep in our beings there is a longing for completion, and all sorts of prostitutes in our culture compete to satisfy that yearning. Only holy time, in which we experience the presence of God, can fill our emptiness. When we focus on our love for the bride, nothing else matters. May our growing together to understand the meaning of Sabbath keeping give you the opportunity to fall in love with the Sabbath Queen and thereby love more deeply the King of the Universe!"

Catholicism for Dummies by Rev. John Trigillio, Jr. & Rev. Kenneth Brighenti

The daughter referred this book to me by giving me my own copy for which I am very thankful as it belongs in my library collection.

As told in the Introductory of Catholicism for Dummies, "This book's goal is to give you a taste of Catholicism. It's not a Catechism or religion textbook but a casual, down-to-earth introduction for non-Catholics and a reintroduction for Catholics. It gives common-sense explanations about what Catholics believe and do in plain English with just enough why and how thrown in to make solid sense. Three great religions trace their roots to the prophet Abraham: Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. And one of those religions, Christianity, is expressed in three different traditions: Catholicism, Protestantism, and Eastern Orthodoxy."

Personally, I feel that all Christians need a basic truthful understanding of these three expressions of Christianity as well as the various denominations within Protestantism. This clarity would bring down divisions that are based on misunderstanding and create unity and love among the Church which the world needs to experience. (I will be posting books I have read on Eastern Orthodoxy at a later time.)

Along with this book I also read and recommend The Rosary Prayer by Prayer by Mary K. Doyle and The Excellence of the Rosary by Math Josef Frings.  The Rosary Prayer by Prayer includes the mysteries (Joyful, Luminous, Sorrowful, Glorious) and The Excellence of the Rosary is a Classic Reprint Series by Forgotten Books www.forgottenBooks.org.

My Name is Mary Sutter by Robin Oliveira & Uncle Tom's Cabin by Harriett Beecher Stowe

This novel contained all I want in a book: well-researched historical setting, captivating narrative of true humanity, and revealed the medical profession for that time period in which I was totally ignorant.      

Book cover summary:   "Mary Sutter is a brilliant young midwife who dreams of becoming a surgeon. Determined to overcome the prejudices against women in medicine --- and eager to run away from recent heartbreak --- Mary travels to Washington, D.C., to help tend the legions of Civil War wounded. Under the guidance of two surgeons, who both fall unwittingly in love with her, and resisting her mother's pleas to return home to help with the difficult birth of her twin sister's baby, Mary pursues her medical career against all odds. Rich with historical detail --- including cameo appearances by Abraham Lincoln and Dorothea Dix, among others --- and introducing a heroine whose unwavering determination and vulnerability will resonate with readers everywhere, My Name is Mary Sutter is certain to be recognized as one of the great novels of the Civil War. " 

Review by Journal of the American Medical Association: "Oliveira's scrupulously factually researched canvas allows it readers to witness through human experience the agonizingly complex relationship of disease, mutilation, death, and healing in war ... Oliveira makes the horrifyingly unimaginable become vivid through the drama encircling the intersecting lives of her central characters, for whom war reveals untold depths of human misery as well as compassion, new understanding, and indomitable, undefeated creativity."


It was interesting for me to note that shortly after I read My Name is Mary Sutter, I was rereading, as an adult, Uncle Tom's Cabin by Harriett Beecher Stowe. I was completely impressed and encouraged by the deep faith given to the character of Tom.     

  

A Mystic Garden by Gunilla Norris

A Mystic Garden, Working with Soil, Attending to Soul is another book by Gunilla Norris. I shared Inviting Silence back in November 2014.This book was read last month as I was anticipating gardening with much longing. The weather of these past few weeks has not brought gardening any closer and I have yet to be able to make the beds ready for seed.

Making the Bed

   Here it is then, three feet by five feet --- a place for greens, a box of hope. It has plenty of sunlight but it's also closer to the garage, and therefore shade lasts longer into the day.  That is good for lettuce.
   The sides of the bed are almost a foot tall. This is a space with a specific purpose. I am not confused about what should be here --- good soil and a variety of lettuces.
   In the house I have a space just for prayer and contemplation. It's a space to help me stay on purpose, to not be confused about what I am doing. Even so, all kinds of things crowd into my mind and heart, thinking, planning, drifting, it's hard to leave room for just being in the presence of God. I'm boxed in by old habits.
  Limitations are necessary for development and growth. Any limitation can be a prison or a place of freedom.  It depends on our attitudes. I need to accept that I can't grow cabbage and broccoli and tomatoes all in the same place.  I have to keep to one or two crops to grow anything decent here,. This kind of limitation is true about a lot of things. In contemplation especially, the willingness to be confined to deep listening, to patient stability, is a proven way to root into God. This can feel like a kind of pregnancy if we will only stay quiet, if we don't interrupt what is really happening. No wonder it was said of pregnant women that they were "confined" with child.

PUBLISHERS WEEKLY --- "Norris cycles through the four seasons of a gardener's heart...She writes lyrically about dormancy and transformation, soil and nourishment, roots and blossoms."

Lists to Live By, Compiled by Alice Gray, Steve Stephens, John Diest

For those of us who love lists this is a must have book. It goes beyond just the normal list and says it is "for everything that really matters."  There are over two hundred lists within Lists to Live By with topics such as Life's Transitions, Standing Strong, and Wisdom. "The lists are brief and usable, and at the same time, valuable and thought provoking. Lists are a great way of wrapping up powerful thoughts in and easy and accessible package." There are three collections of  Lists to Live By.
Here is a list:

WHAT CANCER CANNOT DO
Cancer is Limited ---
It cannot cripple love
It cannot shatter hope
It cannot corrode faith
It cannot destroy peace
It cannot kill friendship
It cannot suppress memories
It cannot silence courage
it cannot invade the soul
It cannot steal eternal life
It cannot conquer the spirit.
    

Brother Hugo and The Bear written by Katy Beebe, illustrated by S.D. Schindler

This book is so beautiful! A friend told me about a book she had read to her daughter and thought of me while reading; thanks Suelinda!  Just the title let me know, it was one I needed to read. In the Author's Note to the reader, she shares how there is truth behind this story. In a letter by Peter the Venerable (Benedictine abbey of Cluney 1092-1156), he told about his unfortunate incident with a bear and a manuscript. The illustrator gives life to the medieval setting. http://www.amazon.com/Brother-Hugo-Bear-Katy-Beebe/dp/0802854079/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1425396347&sr=1-1&keywords=brother+hugo+and+the+bear

The Mother's Song by Meinrad Craighead & Illuminating the Threshold by Jan Richardson

While going through a self-guided retreat last month, this book, The Mother's Song by Meinrad Crighead was quoted. I am so glad it snagged my attention enough to request it from the library. It is an unforgettable book filled with the creative art and prose of the author. 

From the Introduction:  I draw and paint from my own myth of personal origin. Each painting I make begins from some deep source where my mother and grandmother, and all my fore-mothers, still live; it is as if the line moving from pen or bush coils back to the original matrix. Sometimes I feel like a cauldron of ripening images where memories turn into faces and emerge from my vessel.  

 The retreat was Women's Christmas Retreat  Illuminating the Threshold by Jan Richardson. I have shared this retreat and link with several as it was very encouraging for me. Here is Jan's explanation of Women's Christmas Retreat:
 

Did you know that in some parts of the world, Epiphany (January 6, which brings the Christmas season to a close) is celebrated as Women's Christmas? Originating in Ireland, where it is known as Nollaig na mBan, Women's Christmas began as a day when the women, who often carried the domestic responsibilities all year, took Epiphany as an occasion to enjoy a break and celebrate together at the end of the holidays.
Whether your domestic duties are many or few, Women’s Christmas is a good time to pause and take a break from whatever has kept you busy and hurried in the past weeks or months. As the Christmas season ends, this is an occasion both to celebrate with friends and also to spend time in reflection before diving into the responsibilities of this new year.

It's become a tradition for me to create a retreat that you can use for Women's Christmas—or anytime you're in need of a space of reflection. This year's retreat is titled "Illuminating the Threshold." I have a lingering fascination with thresholds, those betwixt and between places that emerge when we have left what is familiar but have not arrived at what lies ahead. This retreat offers an invitation for you to engage your own thresholds and do some reflecting and dreaming there.

Here is her website if you are interested in downloading the retreat: http://sanctuaryofwomen.com/blog/
You will also be impressed with her style of art and poetry.

Ancient Furies A Young Girl's Struggfles in the Crossfire of World War II by Anastasia V. Saporito

This book was extremely hard for me to put down and since it isn't a "skimming kind" of book, I put in a lot of late night reading hours. I finished it last week on the 70th Anniversary of Liberation for Auschwitz and International Holocaust Remembrance Day. This memoir isn't about a Jewish family, but a "stateless" Russian family who were living in Belgrade, Yugoslavia when the forces of Nazi Germany invaded and destroyed the city. As the author died before this book was ready for the publisher, it was finalized by her husband.  Here is the dedication given by Anastasia Popova Saporito:

This book is dedicated to my children, who have a right to know more of their mother, her background, and therefore their heritage than time, or circumstance, or the pain of remembering ever permitted me to tell them; to my parents, who gave me both life and the "foundation" needed to prosper; to Kristina, who has lived always in my heart, and whose memory so often guides me in my own kitchen; to my husband, whose constant love, urging, and editing finally brought this memoir to completion; and finally to the millions who lie in unmarked and/or forgotten graves throughout the world, victims of armed conflicts they neither sought nor under stood.

 Quoting Desmond Tutu from Made For Goodness: In an extraordinary way, we can return to goodness more quickly when we have a clear vision of the present. That clarity about the present is rooted in making peace with the past. Putting words to our pain begins the process of building that peace. In speaking the truth of our pain, we start to collect the memories of what we have done or experienced. When we retell our stories we can be heard into healing. We can be heard back to wholeness, back to goodness, back home to ourselves. Being heard into healing is a need experienced not only by the perpetrators of heinous crimes.  It is a basic human need that we all share.

Read Ancient Furies and be part of the healing as you listen to story of Anastasia.    

  

Daphne Du Maurier

Over the years, I have tried to read all Daphne Du Maurier has written, but I have failed  Of course, it all started with Rebecca! What a story! And you never ever know Mrs. De Winter's name. My next favorites are:  The Glass Blowers, The House on the Strand, The Scapegoat and The Birds. Also read and in my library are the following:  Rule Britannia, Jamaica Inn, Frenchman's Creek, My Cousin Rachel, Mary Anne, The King's General, I'll Never Be Young Again, Hungry Hill, The Parasites, The Flight of the Falcon, The Infernal World of Branwell Bronte,  Don't Look Now. Daphne Du Maurier's autobiography  Myself When Young  and Letters From Menabilly by Oriel Malet are interesting books on her life. Cannot forget to mention that the characters of Rebecca and/or Mrs. De Winter have been continued by other authors:  Rebecca's Tale by Sally Beauman is one I have read.


Still on my To-Read List are several:  Breaking Point, The Loving Spirit, Julius, The Doll: The Lost Short Stories, Castle Dor. Golden Lads, Winding Stair, and Mrs. De Winter by Susan Hill.

My First Graphic Novel: The Night Bookmobile by Audrey Niffenegger

When researching for books about bookmobiles this is one of the books I found and did not notice it was a graphic novel or I probably would not have requested it from the library.  But I am very glad that I met this book. The story is haunting and the illustrations by the author in full-color pen-and-ink are wonderful. Instead of my review, here is the review that was given by Neil Gaiman on the back of the book.

The Night Bookmobile is a love letter, both elegiac and heartbreaking, to the things we have read, and to the readers that we are. It says that what we read makes us who we are. It's a graphic sort story, beautifully drawn and perfectly told, a cautionary fantasia for anyone who has ever loved books, and I hope the story of the library, of Alexandra, finds it place on the shelves of the night bookmobiles of all of us who'd care. It's a treasure.   --- Neil Gaiman

The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood

This is how I discovered Margaret Atwood ......  Gypsi loaned me The Handmaid's Tale to read.  I was very skeptical as the description on the book jacket didn't sound like anything I would enjoy, but by the end of the first chapter I was saying "what else has this woman written?"  I was not able to put this book down. I have that problem a lot. I start a book and it grabs me into the story and I will neglect duties in order to read.  So I have to be careful when I start a book .... is it late at night or do I have commitments for the next morning or top priorities for the next day or two. Nothing is worse as being in a story and having to stay in neutral for an extended period of time. Because my pace of reading to keep up with my desire needs to be fast, I read again many of the books that have given me much pleasure because I may miss some of the smaller but important details. I'm sure there are many readers like I am. Margaret Atwood has not disappointed me; some of her novels may not grab me as strongly as others, but I've never given up reading the book to the end. I have only read a few of her novels:  The Handmaid's Tale, Cat's Eye, Alias Grace and Oryx & Crake; there are so many more I want to read:  The Blind Assassin, The Door, Morning in the Burned House, Bluebeard's Egg.       

Books I Want to Read Again or My Recommendations

These books are ones that I want to read again and are the ones I recommend to others for reading.  They are not compiled in any special order. Keeping this list handy will help me remember the titles and where needed, to purchase a copy for my library. A lot of the novels I read are recommendations from Gypsi, who not only has an unbelievable yearly reading quota, but also does book reviews for Amazon, so I am introduced to a large range of books by her. I also love browsing in the library and on their link, searching used book stores and thrift shops, and I can spend an entire evening on the internet downloading free books to my Kindle; I should never visit a chain book store like Barnes and Noble or Books-A-Million with a credit card and plenty of time.

The Kite Runner, Khaled Hosseini
Baking Cakes in Kigali, Gaile Parkin
The Book Seller of Kabul, Asne Seirstd 
Reading Lolita in Tehran, Azar Nafisi
The Book Thief, Markus Zusak
Room, Emma Donoghue
5th Mountain, Paulo Coelho
Three Cups of Tea, Greg Mortison
Solitaire Mystery, Jostein Gaarder
Giver, Lois Lowry
Gathering Blue, Lois Lowry
Messenger, Lois Lowry
Education of Little Tree, Forrest Carter
From My Highest Hill, Olive Tilford Dargan
Going With the Grain, Susan Seligson
The Storied Life of AJ Fikry: A Novel, Gabrielle Zevin
I Captured the Castle, Dodie Smith
Book of Secrets, Elizabeth Joy Arnold
The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society, Mary Shaffer
The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry, Rachel Joyce
Chasing the Rose, Andrea Di Roilant
Standing Alone in Mecca, Azia Nafisi
The Graveyard Book, Neil Gaiman
Fahrenheit 451, Ray Bradbury
All Roads Lead to Austin, Amy Elizabeth Smith

My best enjoyment from reading comes when I'm in the genre of books about other books, or book stores and several of them are listed above. Here are a couple of links to lists:  https://www.goodreads.com/list/show/7027.Books_About_Bookstores
http://www.goodreads.com/shelf/show/books-about-reading 

Coloring Books and Crayola Crayons

I always get excited when I meet another adult woman that loves coloring books and crayons. I left the coloring world behind for many years, and came back to it when Gypsi reached the age for coloring. While coloring with her, I realized how enjoyable it was and that it actually relaxed me. When I returned to the work place, I would color at breaks and/or lunch for a mindful relaxation. I discovered adult coloring books when buying coloring books that were not either movie or cartoon illustrated became impossible.  Dover Publications offers some great ones http://store.doverpublications.com/. Then I discovered the benefits of coloring when I started quilting as it helped with determining color schemes. Now the fact that it is indeed a stress-reducer is being promoted. I have a large collection of coloring books and even larger collections of Crayola crayons. Collecting Crayola crayons started with a box of special crayons that Gypsi gave me that were called Gem Tones with names such as Rose Quartz, Moonstone, Smokey Topaz, Pink Pearl. At that time, Crayola had started a big production of a variety of boxed crayons: Metallic, Pearl Brite, Retro, Glitter, State Collection. I would purchase each new one that I found and soon I needed a large box for the collection. With the internet came a Crayola web site http://www.crayola.com showing all the products you may not find or could not purchase at any local store. My favorite Crayola color is Purple Mountain Majesty which was voted #17 for the America's Favorite Top 50 Crayons and #1 was Blue. If you go to the Crayola web site be sure to check out the History link and see the colors that have been retired. 

Intimate Moments With the Savior by Ken Gire

I did experience a closeness with the Lord for reading these "first-century visits" of these seventeen intimate moments.  There were three with Peter, one with Judas, and another with the thief on the cross that spoke strongly to me; all were insightful and meaningful.  Here is the introduction:

Life is a kitchenful of preparations that has a tendency to distract the Martha in all of us. It is the purpose of this book to help bring us out of the kitchen for a few minutes to sit, with Mary, at the Savior's feet. For there the words of Jesus wait so patiently to enter our hearts. There, in his presence, we learn to listen. There we learn to look into his eyes. And there we learn to love him. Learning to love Jesus. That's what this book is all about. The best way to do that, I felt, was simple to show him to you. I have attempted to take you back in time to the intimate moments Jesus spent with individuals--to see what they saw, to hear what they heard, to feel what they felt. In those moments Jesus saw something in them that filled him with compassion. And in those moments they saw something in him that brought them to their knees. This book is not designed to be read at one sitting. It is meant to be savored over a period of time, a portion here, a portion there. After waking up in the morning. Before going to bed at night. During a break at work. Before a walk. Whenever you hunger for the Savior's presence. Each of these little portions of fellowship begins with a Bible reading. Growing out of that reading is a meditation, which gives the reader pause to reflect on that intimate moment. Out of the meditation branches a prayer. But you'll notice that the prayer doesn't end with the traditional Amen. That is because it is unfinished. You are invited to complete the prayer, bringing your own thoughts, your own feelings, your own burdens, your own petitions, your own praise. With each intimate moment you spend at the Savior's feet, may you see him a little more clearly and love him a little more deeply that you did before you sat down.   Ken Gire      

Not a Silent Night by Adam Hamilton

When the daughter passed this book onto me, I was eager to read it for two reasons. One, I've been extremely interested in Mary, Jesus' mother, for several years; two, I had just finished another book of Adam Hamilton titled Why and loved his gift of explaining difficult issues. In Not a Silent Night, Mary looks back to Bethlehem as Adam Hamilton begins the book at the end of Jesus' life with the Crucifixion and Resurrection and ends the book with the birth of the Christ Child and all is told from Mary's point of view. Although it was probably designed for reading during Advent, it is an all-season type of book.

Love and Hate in Jamestown by David A. Price

Just finished reading this book and it was another great find in the used book section at  KARM (Knoxville Area Regional Ministry). Not a very long book, around two hundred pages, but facts were compiled in such a way that the story moved the reader forward with interest. From the book jacket:

A gripping narrative of one of the great survival stories of American history: the opening of the first permanent English settlement in the New World. Drawing on period letters and chronicles, and on the papers of the Virginia Company --which financed the settlement of Jamestown --David A Price tells a tale of cowardice and courage, stupidity and brilliance, tragedy and costly triumph,.  He takes us into the day-to-day existence of the British men and women whose charge was to find gold and a route to the Orient, and who instead found hardship and wretched misery. Death, in fact, became the settlers' most faithful companion, and their infighting was ceaseless. Price offers a rare balanced view of the relationship between the settlers and the natives. He unravels the crucial role of Pocahontas, a young woman whose reality has been obscured by centuries of legend and misinformation (and more recently, animation). He paints indelible portraits of Chief Powhatan, the aged monarch who came close to ending the colony's existence, and Captain John Smith, the former mercenary and slave, who disdain for class distinctions infuriated many around him--even as his resourcefulness made him essential to the colony's success.  Love and Hate in Jamestown is a superb work of popular history, reminding us of the horrors and heroism that marked the dawning of our nation.

I remember a couple of other American history novels that I read last year and rated them very high. Devil in the White City and Isaac's Storm by Erik Larson.  

Classical Books & The Bookmobile

Reading and being familiar with the classics has always been the norm for me and looking back in my childhood, I found the reason, and with it a startling recognition of something that was so important to my world of reading.  The Bookmobile!

I grew up on a farm in Barnardsville, NC which was very rural in the days before roads were improved for quicker routes to Weaverville, Asheville, and Mars Hill. It was and still is a small town with a Post Office, school, churches and a few gas stores; there isn't any grocery stores or fast food chains. It is located in the north east section of Buncombe County in such a way that you would never drop by Barnardsville while going somewhere else. The closest public library was in Weaverville, which was at least thirty minutes away from my home, and with both parents working, going there was not a possibility. During the school year the school library was part of the classes, but in the summer months, when you had more reading time, there wasn't any available library for me. Fortunately, there was a bookmobile that stopped at my neighbor's house (she was a reader and loved Zane Gray) and became my connection to books. I can only guess as to the schedule of the bookmobile, but it wasn't weekly and you were limited to how many books you could check out. Not many things could be as bad as using up the limit and getting a book that wasn't a good read. So I quickly learned the symbol that indicated a classical book .... you could always depend on that symbol to be a good read! Thus began my reading relationship with the Classics. See the lists of titles by ages at this site: http://www.wannalearn.com/Classic_Literature/

I decided to check Wikipedia to see what happened to the Bookmobile: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bookmobile and I am excited to find the bookmobile is still going strong in many areas.  Kentucky leads the states in participation with ninety-eight bookmobiles in operation.  April 16th is National Bookmobile Day.     

   

Brambly Hedge Books by Jill Barklem

I discovered these books by Jill Barklem just last summer: Spring Story, Summer Story, Autumn Story and Winter Story, which illustrate the story of the lives of a community of mice. While visiting a local Goodwill Store and checking out the used book section, I saw Autumn Story and was delighted with the illustrations; they were so impressive and detailed and were an actual part of the story. Autumn Story came home with me, since it was not to be resisted at the cost of ninety-nine cents. Since the author was unknown to me, I searched the internet to find out about Jill Barklem and the Brambly Hedge books. I learned that these books have been reprinted more than twenty times, translated into thirteen languages and over a million copies have been sold since the publication in 1980, and although intended for small children, they were a success with readers of all ages. Wanting to have a copy of the other three, my husband turned to E-bay; the result was a large book with all four of the seasons of Brambly Hedge which included a section of conversations with Jill Barklem, illustrations of her early sketches and notebooks and traces the origins and development of Brambly Hedge. It is a wonderful book!  Now I need a copy of The Secret Staircase and The High Hills so I'll know what else has happened in Bramble Hedge.