booktastic

Well, today is the official last day of Christmas by the Catholic calendar (we celebrate Christmas officially on the 24th through the day of Christ’s Baptism, which this year falls on the 11th of January. This gave us an awkward 18 days of Christmas, but who can really complain about a couple extra days of Christmas? Mr. Hall and I were rather sad to discard our beloved tree and pack all the festive decorations away…)

But, in deference to the last day of Christmas, I have one last Christmas offering for you:  The Life and Adventures of Santa Claus by Julie Lane. This is distinct and different from The Life and Adventures of Santa Claus by L. Frank Baum (in spite of the identical names). I finished reading this one yesterday by the lingering light of our last Christmas tree’d night for the next twelve months.

As could probably be gathered from the title, this book is an account of Santa Claus’s life. It describes how the “filling the stockings” tradition came about, how the plant holly got named and put to its use, how he wound up with a red suit, sleigh, reindeer and so on.  It goes all the way from his tragic beginning (his parents and little sister all died in one night) to his own sad but miraculous end (yes, he does die at the end!)

There are some odd elements to the book. It was published (originally) in 1932, and is rather “of its time period” at times - like when young Nicholas’ father see Nicholas making his little sister a doll and complains to his wife, “Eh, Mother… I’d rather see Nicholas down at the boats with me learning to mend a net than fussing with little girls’ toys and forever carrying Katje about with him. ‘Tisn’t naturual for a boy to be so…”

My biggest problem with the book, however, is that it is essentially a realistic fictional account of Santa’s life. Why not, you ask? Well, if you want a realistic account of Santa’s life, why not just write a factual biography of the real St. Nicholas? Writing a realistic but fictional account just seems to be an (inadvertent) attempt to muddy the waters.

I’m not saying this is a terrible book. Quite the opposite - it was cute and had its charming moments, and I daresay child readers might enjoy it. It even had “discussion questions” after each chapter (which I must say I did find a bit odd, since this isn’t a factual, historical book) to increase the enjoyment and understanding of the book, I assume. If you’re a Christmas aficionado, you should probably check it out.

And with this review, the Christmas season of 08-09 comes to a close. I hope it was a good one for you! — Mrs. Hall

Merry Christmas!! I hope that a wonderful 25th was spent by you and yours. If you don’t celebrate Christmas… well, I hope that you had pleasant day regardless.

Christmastime (Advent and Christmas proper) effectively removed any possibility of my posting on a regular basis during the month of December. I was reduced to posting once a week (or less) on both my blogs.

That situation should improve now that January is almost upon us! Christmas purists will know that Christmas is still going on (until Epiphany) - but the most complicated parts for me (the decorating, gifting, and visit home to family) are done. Now I just have to enjoy its remaining days. I have to go to work on many of them, unfortunately, but I do have a weekend AND two days off for New Year, so I shall make the most of what I’ve got. (I plan on baking a “King’s Cake” for 12th Night, by the way. This will be a new tradition for my family… so, I guess it’s technically not a tradition at this point… but I would like it to be so in the future. I’m going to research traditional cake recipes and everything.)

Very little reading was done this month. When I wasn’t distracted with Christmas, I was sleeping. And although I did bring two books along on my Christmas vacation (A Monstrous Regiment of Women and Shepherds Abiding), I did not read them because most all of our time was spoken for. I am still in the midst of reading The Life and Adventures of Santa Claus by Julie Lane, and a copy of my beloved The Life and Adventures of Santa Claus by L. Frank Baum arrived with yesterday’s mail! (Thanks, Jeanne at Bookmooch!)

I have three overdue library books (forgot to return them before vacation… eep!) and also received a book from Miss Landis for Christmas…! So I suppose what I’m saying is that I have a goodly portion of Christmas reading to fit in before Epiphany, and also two other books that I wish to start reading (and would like to finish reading, and return to the library) soon.

I also have a book that I wrote this past year that needs to be submitted to publishers in 2009…!  This looks like a busy month and year in the offing… – Mrs. Hall

“Boomtown turned out to be a place where everybody’s favorite thing to do was to blow stuff up. …They valued education more than money, worked hard, stayed married, loved their children, cared for the environment, and honored the heritage of other cultures. You may ask, ‘How is that possible?’ I see your point. A place like that can’t be real. But it should be.” - From the “Introduction” by Nowen N. Particular

Boomtown, by the mysterious Nowen N. Particular, takes place in the fictional town of Boomtown, Washington in the 1940’s. The story is told by the Reverend Button, newly arrived with his family to minister over the Boomtown Church. After arriving, he discovers two things that upset his composure: first, that the people of Boomtown are one and all eccentrics who love blowing things up; second, that all the previous ministers of Boomtown Church (some twenty four of them) died in bizarre accidents after only a year or two of ministering.

The story is almost an ensemble piece, focusing chapter-to-chapter on the individual stories of the inhabitants of Boomtown. We hear the story of Chang, the town’s founder and creator of the fireworks factory that gave the town its name; Walt, the Butcher turned Barber; Mabel, proprietress of the eponymous Mabel’s Diner (”Terrible Coffee, Worse Service”); and the Hopontop Indians.

Right off the bat, I would like to say that I essentially enjoyed reading this book. However, I did find myself wondering if it would really hold the attention of the “tween” audience that it is apparently aimed at. Yes, it is colorful and cartoony and has lots of crazy happenstances. All well and good.

But the story is told by the father. Typically, a book of this type would be from the perspective of one of his children - and, indeed, they had more adventures than he did although (as promised) his life was endangered on several occasions. I mean, I did enjoy the book - but I can’t help but wonder if I would have enjoyed it just as much at age 10, or if I would have gotten impatient with the adult main character and wanted to see things from the kids’ viewpoints instead. Even though many things that happened in the book were intentionally very outlandish, I couldn’t escape the feeling that this was a grownup telling a story to another grownup. I don’t have any kids available to question and see if that approach works or doesn’t work, so I’ll just have to leave this issue open-ended.  But, what if the book Peter Pan was told entirely from the perspective of the Darling parents? It would have been a rather sad, depressing, colorless story.

The author stated in the introduction (quoted above) that he was “surprised” by the “ethnic variety” in the town. Okay, I get that this is supposed to be a Utopia of sorts; the author’s idea of the ideal town where everybody respects everybody else. But I’m also reminded of a warning on the beginning of the recently released Vol. 1 of Fleischer’s utterly wonderful Popeye cartoons:

(Emphasis on the final line, “… to do otherwise would be the same as claiming these prejudices never existed.”) Yes, the author did mention something to the effect that some people had some issues with a mixed-race child who becomes involved in the story. Yes, the author did take pains to explain how the town had a Japanese mayor just a couple years after the end of WWII, when most Japanese Americans were still viewed with suspicion across the USA.

Yet, I see the main character casually accepting things like the fact that the area has a female, hispanic circuit court judge (unusual for a small rural town even in this day and age) without any question whatsoever (despite the fact this is supposed to take place in the 1940’s) to be pushing it just a bit. Yes, I know this is essentially a cartoon world, but I think it could have borne a few more comments that this was very unusual in that time and place.

However, perhaps the biggest problem I had with this book was the ending - and I will try to explain my problem without ruining it for any potential readers. The book spent a lot of time getting us used to a certain set of characters (the amusing cover announces that this is “Book One” so I’m assuming that more are planned) - and yet, this set of characters simply ditches the town at the end. I found that rather disconcerting as well as going against a lot of what they’d been setting up in the book… it was like all the lessons that had been learned about acceptance were simply discarded. I’m assuming that the next book would simply have to deal with a wholly different set of characters, which I would find even more disconcerting. I liked these characters - I wanted to spend more time with them.

And I would also like to point out that despite this book being told by a minister (and being published by a Christian publishing company) I thought the religious message, if there was one, was a touch on the covert side. Perhaps the author was aiming at that to avoid “preaching” to the kids… but, really, if I’m buying a book from a religious publishing company, I kind of expect there to be a clear-cut religious theme…

I’m afraid this is going to be a half-and-half sort of review… because I essentially enjoyed reading it. I thought Boomtown sounded like a nice place to live in spite of the fact that it had no Catholics. I was entertained by most of the colorful characters - and wouldn’t want to live in an idyllic small town where everybody loves everybody else and enjoys setting off fireworks?

But, as I said, I had issues with both story elements and fact that we are getting everything from the perspective of the stodgy father character (which as an adult I had no problem with - but which as a kid, whom this story was ostensibly aimed at, I might have been bored).

So what is my final word? As I originally stated, I essentially enjoyed reading this book. I would recommend it to other adults who are looking for light, colorful reading and enjoy escapism - but I don’t think I can whole-heartedly recommend it for kids.  — Mrs. Hall

At that book sale last week, I happened to pick up a copy of a brand new children’s picture book called Ocean Wide, Ocean Deep, by Susan Lendroth, published August of this year by Tricycle Press.

Now, I didn’t buy it for myself, even though I have a “thing” for well-made children’s books (my minor at university actually focused on children’s literature. When my fellow students were struggling with Henry James, I was reading Are You There, God? It’s Me, Margaret.) I picked it up for a baby I know.

I chose this book over several other picture books because this one had very nice illustrations and a sweet story. It’s about a girl, in the olden days, waiting for her Dad to get back from the sea.

Pretty simple story, right? Well, it’s a picture book for small children. It’s SUPPOSED to have a simple story. When your book is less than twenty pages long and has fewer words than this blog post, you have to be pretty concise in your story structure: You announce the problem, deal with the problem, and at the end of the book, resolve the problem. The problem is announced - girl’s dad is going away to sea. Deal with the problem: girl misses her dad. Resolve the problem: Dad comes home. Everybody’s happy.

Unfortunately, although I really like this book, I haven’t got a lot to say about it… because it’s less than twenty pages long and has fewer words than this blog posting. But let me reitterate: sweet story, BEAUTIFUL illustrations. If the book has one flaw, it’s that some of the vocabulary used in it is a bit advanced for the “picture book” age group… but I suppose that would be a good opportunity for vocab building, too, so I can’t even really complain about that.

So, to sum up - if you need a pretty, sweet, new picture book for a young lady you know this Christmas: pick up Ocean Wide, Ocean Deep. Definitely a keeper. (Although I’m not keeping mine, darn it. Lucky baby!) — Mrs. Hall

I have a shameful confession to make. When I was a child, I owned the complete set of Paddington Bear books…

And I never read them.

I don’t know why I never read them. After I learned to read I became a voracious reader and consumed almost every book I owned and many I didn’t (thanks, West Plains Public Library) - including an entire series of rather crappy “Solve it Yourself” mysteries and “Choose Your Own Adventure! ” books.

But not Paddington. There were just a handful of books I owned that I never read (including Misty and King of the Wind because I could just never get into a book about a horse. I liked horses, like all eight year old girls do, but I was never interested in reading stories exclusively about them. I mean, who cares what a horse is thinking about? In my experience growing up on a farm, horses think about two things: eating and finding things they can use to knock off/crush the people riding them. But I digress.)

I don’t remember why the books never interested me. I was always interested in the British Isles, so it kind of surprises me that I didn’t take to the books… I seem to recall, at some point, asking my Mother where they had come from and if she had ever read them; I don’t remember her reply, except that it can’t have inspired me to read them. But I do remember what happened to those books - I wound up giving them to the children of some friends of ours who were even more poor (poorer?) than we were (!!). They were excited to get them.

And so I have gone through my life Paddington-less. The story would have ended there, but for the fact that recently I was searching for audiobooks to download from the public library website. I searched, on a whim, for “Stephen Fry” (a British actor of whom I was overly fond at one time; he was half of the team of Fry and Laurie, the other half being Hugh Laurie of House fame)  - and discovered that Stephen Fry was the narrator for a copy of A Bear Called Paddington, available for download. Somebody else had it checked out, so I patiently waited my turn for it, and downloaded it last week.

It only took me a few hours at work (data entrying) to finish it… but it was delightful. This kind of story was made to be read by someone like Stephen Fry: so quaint and distinctly British, with lots of emphasis on subtle puns and wordplay. Mr. Fry has an amazing speaking voice and was able to do all the different characters (with different accents and intonations, depending on the case) perfectly.

As far as Paddington goes… I am very sorry, now, that I did not read these books as a child. This one at least was very cute and enjoyable, and I even chuckled out loud a couple times. As far as the narration by Stephen Fry goes - it was fabulous.

If you’re in the mood for a sweet, light, enjoyable, entertaining book - and want to hear it narrated by a great voice actor - buy or download this copy of A Bear Called Paddington!! – Mrs. Hall

As predicted, I finished A Christmas Story in roughly an hour and a half of straight reading. I feel kind of bad talking about it right now, as I was also recently reading the book Unplug the Christmas Machine, and one of the first things it mentioned was how Christmas is being messed up by the fact that people build up to it longer and longer but celebrate it less and less. (You know: stores encourage us to start building up to the day beginning in August now, so we build up and build up and build up - and then, BOOM, December 26th it’s all over, and we’re left depressed and empty feeling with a saggy tree that we feel obliged to leave up for a few extra days. Back in olden times, Christmas was a feast that you built up to for a limited amount of time [Advent] and then celebrated it for days and days… You know, I really should look up the exact quote from the book. My version is somewhat unwieldy.)

However, I also ascribe to the Ebeneezer Scrooge school of Christmas, which is that “I will honor Christmas in my heart, and try to keep it all the year.” So, rather than reading A Christmas Story as an attempt to build up to Christmas, I’m using it as a chance to make Christmas here, now, and every day. I feel even the authors of Unplug the Christmas Machine could agree with that sentiment.

… Anyway, I’ve rambled enough, so I’d better get back to the point, which is that I just read The Christmas Story. In case you didn’t know, this book actually did not exist before the movie: the movie was based on several short stories taken from Jean Shepherd’s book In God We Trust: All Others Pay Cash. However, the interest has been great enough that they finally took the stories out of that book and assembled them together under the title of the movie, e.g. The Christmas Story.

In this compendium, you’ll find the true stories of the Red Ryder BB gun, the Bumpuses, the Old Man’s “major award” and so on. Some facts are different from the film - for instance, the holiday feast that was consumed by the Bumpus hounds was actually an Easter Ham, not a Christmas Turkey.  But the stories also enlarge on facts stated in the film but not fully explained: who knew that the gifts featured prominently at Christmas (the can of Simonize, the zeppelin) were Ralphie’s gifts to his family?

Criticisms: I wouldn’t call this book “laugh out loud” funny - because I didn’t. However, I did smile a lot, and I did actually chuckle out loud at one point. Though it’s worth mentioning… I found some moments of the book darker than the film. The story of the bully Grover Dill (Scut Farkas in the film) read like an essay on the savagery of man… Of course, it’s possible that it wasn’t meant to be taken seriously. And a minor criticism (not really of the writing, since this book wasn’t even compiled by the author - it may even have been assembled after his death) is that, with the exception of the story of the Red Ryder BB gun, the stories in this book are not actually Christmas stories. But, as I said, that’s not really a proper criticism of the writing.

In the end, would I recommend this book? Yes. It was a light, enjoyable (and FAST) read. As a Christmas book I would give it three out of five stars because only one of the stories has anything to do with Christmas - but don’t let that put you off. If you want to really get a Christmas experience out of it, I’d recommend you do the following: skip the Red Ryder BB gun story (which is the first in the book), read the others, and then finish the book by reading that. That’s how the publishers should have arranged it, if you ask me! — Mrs. Hall

It may be too early to talk about this…. but it occurred to me this morning that it’s been several years since I read the book that used to be my Christmas tradition — The Life and Adventures of Santa Claus by L. Frank Baum.

I suppose this tradition ended with my marriage and leaving of the parental home, largely due to the fact that I never actually owned a copy of this book — the one I read as a child belonged to my parents’ library.

However, I always think about this book at Christmastime and rather wish I had a copy.

Yes, that’s the L. Frank Baum of Wizard of Oz fame; one of his less popular, non-Oz books was this completely fictionalized biography of Santa. When I say “completely fictionalized”, I’m implying a whole lot more than the semi-mythic stories about the actual Santa Claus, St. Nicholas. This book contains no mention of his bishopric (yes, that’s a real word, and it’s not at all dirty) or the story of him saving the girls who were going to be sold into slavery by throwing bags of money through their window. You see, in L. Frank’s version, infant Claus is abandoned in the woods, is raised by a tiger and a nymph, learns lessons about good and evil and is finally granted immortality by the elves. His being a bishop - or a catholic - or even religious at all - really doesn’t figure into the story.

As a general rule, I take issue with “Christmas stories” that remove all the religious aspect from Christmas. However, I believe L. Frank simply wanted to give Santa a suitably mystical and magical origin, and did it the best way he knew how; I doubt that this book was intended as a tract of paganism any more than The Marvelous Land of Oz was intended as an argument for the acceptability of gender reassignment. (If you don’t know what I’m talking about… Well, that’s a whole other post.)

In retrospect, the book may be a touch on the bizarre side… but I cannot describe how much I enjoyed reading it as a child. Even as a teen - when reading the book became the work of an afternoon, rather than days - it still held a certain glamour for me. The beautiful illustrations, the sweet text…

But, as I mentioned, I haven’t read it in years. It’s rather perplexing to me that I haven’t managed to pick up a copy for myself in spite of liking it so much… Maybe I’ve been waiting for somebody to give it to me as a Christmas present.

Incidentally, this book was made into a rather trippy Rankin Bass film, The Life & Adventures of Santa Claus. Oddly, where I found the book charming and magical, I found this clay representation rather disturbing and nightmarish. But maybe that’s just me… If you didn’t find this claymation epic scary, I’d be delighted to hear from you.

Anyways, if you’re looking for some Christmas Reading, you should probably try to find yourself a copy of The Life and Adventures of Santa Claus. It’s a really fast read, has L. Frank Baum’s characteristic wit and charm - and, though it may not have any connection whatsoever to the “factual” biography of Santa - who couldn’t stand a little more mythical, mystical magic this Christmas? — Mrs. Hall

I mentioned yesterday that Orson Scott Card is one of my favorite “straight Sci-Fi” authors. I use the term “straight Sci-Fi” to distinguish from the kind of Sci-Fi that Douglas Adams and Terry Pratchett create: you know, humorous Sci-Fi. Mr. Card sticks to the serious, with the funny cracks very few and far in between. Since humor is one of the main things I used to look for in my reading, an author would have to be very good at other things (creativity, originality, dialogue, scenarios) to attract my attention.

Orson Scott Card’s writing has all of those things.

The first book of Mr. Card’s that I ever encountered was his book Wyrms. This is one of his earliest novels, I believe, if not his first. My encounter with this book was seeing it left on the coffee table when my mother checked it out from the library when I was about eleven. I didn’t read it at the time because it was in the “grown up” Sci-Fi section, and I was still steering clear of that and keeping to children’s and YA books.

A couple years later I had abruptly decided I was grown up (thirteen year olds will do that, you know) and was browsing the adult Sci-Fi section when I came across Wyrms again. It looked promisingly lurid (one had different priorities as a teenager), so I picked it up and read it.

I am not sure, in retrospect, that I should have been reading that book. Yes, it was about a girl about my age - but, really, it was not age appropriate reading. Certain scenes from that book remain with me vividly to this day. The flesh of a man’s hand slipping off like a glove…

No, I’m not crediting Orson Scott Card with my screwed-up subconscious (I reserve that credit for Stephen King). However, I am crediting him with creating a magnificently vivid, complicated, compelling story in that book. Absolutely not for children, of course - that particular book is riddled with sexuality and graphic violence, as I recall - but still an excellent read. I picked up a copy the other day and discovered that the first few pages of the book drew me in immediately. That’s a mark of good writing - when you flip it open idly, and find yourself not wanting to put it down.

Since then, Orson Scott has made an even bigger name for himself by writing the “Ender” series. Now, I had never heard of the Ender books until I was in my twenties and one of my boyfriends recommended the first book, Ender’s Game, to me. I vaguely recalled Orson Scott Card from my previous experience, so I figured it would at least be entertaining - if somewhat lurid - and read the thing.

What I discovered was not just YA fiction, not just Sci-Fi - and was definitely not lurid. Ender’s Game, I can confidently say, is a classic.

I’m not easily impressed with Sci-Fi, so don’t think that I’m praising it lightly. For me to use the term “classic” - it has to meet some strong criteria. It must have compelling characters, a believable situation, must be readable by a larger audience than just Sci-Fi geeks, and a story that transcends the time period that the book was written in and manages to resonate for years - decades - to come.

Ender’s Game does that.

I predict that this will be considered one of the classics of genre, if not one of the classic books of the generation: it kind of is already. It has more or less transcended the genre and is often carried in the “straight” fiction area of bookstores, and in both YA and adult.

Orson Scott Card has written sequels; there are the direct sequels, Speaker for the Dead and Xenocide, and also books about side characters, beginning with Ender’s Shadow (considered the fifth in the series, but really starting a series in itself). The direct sequels are worth reading if you liked Ender’s Game although not quite as compelling. The Shadow books went a bit further than I was interested in going: the only one I finished was the first, Ender’s Shadow, which was more or less Ender’s Game but told from a character who stood three feet to the side.

But I’m getting off the point, which is that whether or not you like Sci-Fi, if you like good reading, you could (and should) read Ender’s Game. It is a superb novel.

Now, for Sci-Fi and Fantasy buffs, there are several other series that you may want to check out; notably, the Alvin Maker books and the Homecoming series. The Alvin Maker books are a fantasy series that take place in an alternate version of the United States (think cowboys with magic); and the Homecoming series is about a group of people who live on a foreign planet who come to the conclusion that people used to live somewhere else (another planet) and want to get back there. I have only picked up the Alvin Maker books, but I read the entire Homecoming series while I was in college.

(Let me sidetrack a little bit to mention that Orson Scott Card is a Mormon. If that concerns you, don’t worry; he’s not slipping Mormons into everything he writes. In fact, there are all kinds of religions in there - even ones that directly contradict Mormonism [such as Catholicism, for instance] and are still presented favorably. However, I was rather surprised when, after reading the Homecoming series, on a random afternoon I picked up a copy of The Book of Mormon and started reading it… and found the opening story almost was almost identical to the scenary in Memory of Earth. There’s nothing really wrong with that, I suppose: I mean, people incorporate Biblical and mythic stories into their writing all the time… And it must be said - not casting aspursions on Mormons, you understand - The Book of Mormon makes decent Sci-Fi/Fantasy reading.)

I’m not saying that all Orson Scott Card’s books are classics. After reading the whole Homecoming series, they kind of began to blend into each other and I could see the patterns in his writing and characters and scenarios he likes to re-use. (I am particularly perplexed by the repeated theme of narrowly-avoided sibling incest). And, honestly, the reason I’ve never read the Alvin Maker series is that I’ve just never been able to get into it. I’ve picked up Seventh Son two or three times and got as far as chapter three, but always wound up putting it aside.

However, I’ve never read an author whose entire cannon of books has been classic (with the possible exception of Harper Lee). I love the books of E.F. Benson, but there are a few of his that I like more than others. I liked the Hitchhiker “Trilogy”, but I was never fond of the fourth book in it. In short, Orson Scott Card is like all other authors, in that some of his books are simply better than others.

However - unlike all other authors - some of his books exceed simply being “better” and enter into the realm of classic. I highly recommend Memory of Earth, Wyrms, and (for the writers amongst us) his very entertaining non-fiction work How to Write Science Fiction and Fantasy.

And I INSIST that you read Ender’s Game. You’ll be glad you did. –Mrs. Hall