booktastic

“As drastic as it may appear, God will actually allow a person to experience hell on earth, in hopes of awakening his faith. A holy love makes the tough choice to release the child to the consequence of his actions.” - Max Lucado, p. 42

Max Lucado wrote this book, For the Tough Times, for people experiencing any kind of tough time, from having general anxiety about money to grieving over a loved one.

This is a very short book - 79 pages, and the print isn’t tiny, while the pages are - so while Mr. Lucado tackles a very complex topic, he really doesn’t have the room to do more than scratch the surface. He tackles grief, revenge, suffering, worrying - but each of those topics would be enough for a book in themselves. He dissects a few Bible quotes (”Yet what shall I choose? I do not know! I am torn between the two: I desire to depart and be with Christ, which is better by far,”) making sure to put the distinctly Protestant spin on them (”What Paul is saying here is that the moment he departs or dies, that very moment he is with the Christ.” [p.75] Completely at odds with the Catholic notion of Purgatory of course… and not really supported by the scripture he quoted since it just says he wants to be with Christ, not that he’s immediately going to be with him), makes a point about the subject, (for instance, on Revenge, “Would you like some peace? Then quit giving your neighbor such a hassle,” and yes, that is a real quote from this book,) and then moves swiftly on to the next subject.

This book may be appropriate for somebody who is worried about money, or anxious about the environment, or abstract things like war and suffering. It may even be a good introduction book for somebody who has never, ever contemplated the deeper religious meanings of things like suffering and pain - who is not actually experiencing deep suffering and pain at the time.

However, I wouldn’t even think of giving this book to someone who had lost a spouse or a child - you know, deep pain. If I had just lost Mr. Hall, I would find the tone of this book lightweight and flippant - if not a trifle insulting. (”Cheer up, stupid. God loves you.”) Times of deep pain that deserve a more serious, in-depth discussion of pain and suffering. C.S. Lewis’s A Grief Observed, Victor Frankl’s Man’s Search for Meaning, or parts of Thomas Merton’s The Seven Storey Mountain. I would especially not give this book to someone who someone in deep suffering who was new to the concepts expressed in this book, because I don’t think it would be an appropriate introduction.

Okay, this may seem kind of harsh. I’ve told you what I wouldn’t do with this book and what it isn’t. But, really, what this book is is a brief discussion of a few subjects related to anxiety and suffering; I don’t think this book was intended to be an in-depth treatise on the subject of suffering, or else it would have probably been a bit more than seventy pages long.

So, again: if you know someone who is in real pain, please, give them a more serious book. I think this would be a decent, lightweight book to give to someone who was experiencing mild anxiety about life, or worrying about a concerning abstract concept.  — Mrs. Hall

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

“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

Now, if like me you were otherwise occupied in 2006 (we were completely tied up in our own problems at the time and not watching the news) you may have missed the incident related in Holding Fast: The Story of the Mt. Hood Tragedy. Three climbers became trapped on Mt. Hood and there was an intensive search for them, hoping to find them while they were still alive.

It didn’t work out that way.

This book was written by the widow of Kelly James, the man whose body was the first to be found. The second wife of Mr. James, Karen James relates how she met Kelly, their seemingly charmed relationship, their professional successes and Kelly’s hobby of climbing - and how it all led to that fateful day that he didn’t come home. Then she discusses the details of the incident itself, and its aftermath.

It’s somewhat hard to be objective about this book and discuss it from a reviewer’s standpoint because I found it so emotionally-charged. Plus, how do you criticize a woman discussing her husband’s death? Is there any way to discuss possible faults of this book without being a complete and utter jerk?

Let me try.

As I said, this book is so emotionally charged that it’s hard for me to get perspective on it. It’s very painful to read. I’m not saying that as a criticism of the style or technique of the writing - I’m saying that the story itself is painful. As a wife one of my greatest fears is the death of my husband; this story is all about that fear realized in one of the most horrible ways possible. In that aspect, the book is truly heart-wrenching and sickening. Instead of watching her writing style and structure, I was continually putting myself in her place - which I suppose actually is the mark of a well-written book.

Besides discussing the incident itself, the book is also about how Karen’s faith saw her through this difficult time and how she dealt with the tragedy. A network of good friends, supportive family - and deep personal faith - are what kept her going through the darkest times up until now, roughly two years later.

This brings me to a criticism of the book: I feel that this book may have been written a bit soon. Not that she hasn’t dealt admirably with the situation - but the tragedy only took place two years ago. Less than that, even. I think this book might have had a more fully fleshed-out feeling if the authoress had waited five, maybe ten years before writing it. A scant year and a half later, this book is more part of the healing process than a objective description of it.

Not to say that she doesn’t share some important insights about the nature of grief and how faith has carried her through the situation. However, the book has something of the air of an unfinished story, like an autobiography written by a thirty year-old. Yes, the stated focus of the book - the finding of Kelly, the initial grief and recovery of his family - is told. But this book is predominantly about Karen James’s grief and recovery; barely a year and a half later, although her faith has strengthened and the passage of time has somewhat softened her pain, it still has the feeling of an open wound. I would like to know what her perspective on faith and grief are in five years - or ten. I have a feeling it would be totally different. (Not opposite; just different.)

If you were one of the millions who was praying for the Mt. Hood climbers while the tragedy was unfolding, you may want to read this book. If you are looking for books about grief and faith, this would also be another book to examine. And I didn’t finish it feeling wretched as I thought I would - I felt somewhat uplifted. However, I would like to recommend that the publisher consider adding an afterword from the authoress five years down the line so that this story will have a fuller sense of completion. And that’s all I have to say about that. — Mrs. Hall

I finished In This Mountain yesterday. Despite having decided twenty pages-in that this was going to be the first Jan Karon book that failed to capture my attention, I wound up being completely captured and spending almost my entire Sunday finishing this book. (Hense the fact that I didn’t post on here yesterday).

So kudos to Jan Karon; boo-dos to me.

And incidentally, I was wrong in my other post when I mentioned that this was the second-to-last book; it turns out that there are two more to read, Shepherds Abide and Light From Heaven… both of which I own. So It’s totally my call as to when I finish this series.  But I must admit I’m rather loath to finish it; I’ve had such a good time reading it. I’ll be rather sad when it’s all over.

My next book is going to be an unusual one for me: Holding Fast - The Untold Story of the Mount Hood Tragedy. I must admit that this is not a book I would normally pick up - mainly due to the word “Tragedy” in the title. (I won’t deny that the majority of the time I’m reading for escapism purposes, so my favorite materials are somewhat prelapsarian in nature. I get more than enough “tragedy” from the newspapers.) However, I’ve just started reviewing books for the company that published this, and this was the most likely of the bunch that was offered… So there you have it.  More on this one when it’s finished. – Mrs. Hall

I had a new Bookmooch book arrive today: The Mitford Snowmen by Jan Karon. This story comes right between the 6th and 7th books, so it was okay for me to start reading it.

Okay, if you want a fast holiday read, this would be it. The glimpse of the cover online gave no hint that this isn’t really… uh… how can I put this without sounding insulting? … it’s not really a book.

Well, I mean, it is a book, technically. It has two covers and pages. But it’s not a novel, nor even a novella: this is a very short story stuck in a hardcover binding. It literally took me about five minutes to read.

Oh, it was cute and Christmassy and if you like Mitford books you’ll probably want to read it, but don’t request it - as I did - thinking that you are going to have an afternoon’s read on your hands. You’ll be lucky if you haven’t got it entirely read by the time you get it out of the box it came in. I can’t describe to you what the story is about - because my description would probably be longer than the book itself.

Granted - this item, upon examination, makes no bold claim to be a great big book. The front says, “The Mitford Snowmen: A Christmas Story.” Not “The Mitford Snowmen: A Christmas Tome“. So I suppose I can’t fault it on that. Really, I can’t fault it at all, except for the fact that it’s very, very short.

So… again…. if you want some fast Christmas reading, pick up The Mitford Snowmen. And then put it down five minutes later when you’re done reading it. — Mrs. Hall

P.S. My borrowed audio copy of Bleak House expires next week on the 19th… I don’t think I’m going to finish it by then. Maybe I’ll just request a Bookmooch copy of it and read it on my own time…

I made the mistake of trying to do Christmas shopping today. Well, I guess in spirit it wasn’t a mistake: after all, if I wait much longer, Christmas will be upon me and I’ll be out of luck and probably out of money. No, it was a good idea to try to shop today.

I guess the mistake was that I tried to go to places that I like to shop, because I mainly find things for myself. On my lunch break, I ran down Michigan Avenue and went into the Borders next to the Water Tower. I saw lots of books that I would like, and a whole lot of books that I could potentially have bought for my sister-in-law (she’s easy to shop for… but fortunately or unfortunately, I’ve already finished picking out her gifts) but nothing for the person on my list who is the hardest to shop for: my father in law. He has intensely simple needs - and whenever the man wants something, he buys it himself! Gift shopping for him is enough to drive a person to distraction.

Oh, in book-related news: if you’re at all a fan of Jan Karon’s Mitford series, you’ll find a couple jems in Borders’s bargain book isle. They’ve got both In This Mountain and Shepherds Abide - both, I believe, either $4.99 or $5.99. I would have picked them up myself but I already have both!

I wound up coming out with a potential gift for my mother-in-law, something for my siblings and a surprise for Mr. Hall (a book he has admired in the past, Postcards from the Boys by Ringo Starr. It’s a rather interesting book of… you guessed it… postcards from the other Beatles. And get this - it was only $4.99 on the bargain book rack!) but nothing for my father-in-law. Bah!

My trip to Kohl’s this evening after work was similarly uninspiring, and I came away very disgusted at their insufficient supply of men’s thermal underwear. I also came out of Kohl’s exhausted, and promptly missed a bus. Lately when I’m tired I’ve been rather fragile about the most minuscule things, so missing that bus almost drove me to tears… But I comforted myself, thought about the good confession I’d had last night; thought about the lovely way my church had set up for the Eucharistic adoration and the amazing hum of energy in church whenever the blessed sacrament is displayed; thought about the shirt I had bought at Kohl’s (uh… for myself) and waited, and sure enough another bus came past less than ten minutes later. Thank God for small miracles. The bus ride home was brief, quiet, and I was able to read without any motion-sickness problems. Again, thank God.

I had stuff to do upon getting home (like writing this blog, doing dishes, taking a shower, doing laundry), but I was just too tired… it’s been a long day and a long week. So I heated up some left-over meatloaf and macaroni, settled down on the couch an opened up the book that I’ve been reading. On a spur-of-the-moment whim this week I decided that, although I have a lot of other books I should be working on, it was time to pick up the next book in the Mitford series, In This Mountain. It’s the seventh book.

I don’t think I’ve read one of the Mitford books since June or July. Maybe even before that, I don’t recall. But anyway, I opened up this book at the beginning of the week; I had a bit of trouble getting into the first few pages, and I actually began to think that this was going to be the first of the Mitford books that I didn’t get totally wrapped up in…

I was wrong, of course. Jan Karon wins again. After getting home I spent the remainder of the evening reading it, and am almost half way through now. I think that Shepherds Abide, the eighth book, may be the last, so maybe I ought to be dragging my feet a little more… Ah well, no time to worry about it now. I’ve taken my shower and written my blog, so now I have some dishes to do. — Mrs. Hall

You’ll have to excuse me for not posting yesterday. I had to run errands during my lunchbreak, so I thought I would post when I got home… but, being exhausted by having only about three hours sleep the night before, I found myself lying blearily on the couch for most of the remainder of the evening.

That said, it was a pretty good reading day. On the bus home, I was able to read significantly longer than I have been. This is possibly because I began to get very interested in the book, The Beekeeper’s Apprentice - interested enough that I actually forgot how poorly I was feeling (until I began to feel very poorly indeed, and had to stop).

In addition, I was extremely delighted to discover that Youtube has a few sections from my favorite audiobook of all time: The Screwtape Letters as read by John Cleese. This was especially exciting for me because although I desperately love this recording, I have never owned a copy (only borrowed a library copy) and now it is out-of-print and quite unavailable.

The nice thing about listening to a recording of something you like to read is that sometimes in reading you will pass over things that you can’t ignore when you hear it. Thus it is with The Screwtape Letters.

(In case you’re not familiar with the book, it’s written as a series of letters from a senior devil to a young devil who is in the process of tempting his first soul. It’s funny yet serious - and simultaneously light while being very heavy indeed. It will make you examine your soul in ways you never imagined. It’s also exceedingly British, as the senior devil [Screwtape] sounds for all the world like a stuffy old British civil servant [which I believe was the intention]. One of the ultimate books on religion. If you haven’t read it - you should. I don’t care if you’re Catholic, Protestant, Agnostic or Athiest - you should read this book!) 

I had read the book before, of course, when I listened to the recording - but John Cleese’s reading of it really brought it to life. Certain passages had gone clean over my head when I read it, but were really hammered home when I listened to the recording.

Happily, my job here does not hinder me from having headphones on, so I was able to listen to the “letters” that are available on YouTube. There are only about seven of them, unfortunately, but they are all good. Here is an excellent one; this is letter seven - an excellent treatsie on how “Noble Causes” can actually advance the downfall of the soul. (I would advise you to ignore the little visual display that the video’s author came up with. I would have been entirely content to have John Cleese’s voicevoice and a blank screen.  — Mrs. Hall

Sorry I didn’t post yesterday, folks: sometimes when it rains, the internet doesn’t work. I don’t know what the connection is, but there you have it.

I finished reading Mistletoe Murder last night. It had a better mystery than Christmas Cookie Murder (more actual sleuthing and solving went on), but, as I said, the writing style was rougher (or more rough, I don’t know the grammar rule in this case). And I didn’t like the characters as much as I did in Christmas Cookie Murder - slightly younger and slightly more obnoxious. But, unlike the Christmas Cookie Murder, although there were moments where the character was wholly distracted from the mystery - it was never as pronounced. There was a big chunk of CCM which was a sub-plot about one of her children getting involved with drugs (a sub-plot which never even really amounted to a condemnation of taking drugs, which was odd) . It was kind of interesting from a character perspective, but took forever to tie in with the rest of the story. When I was reading it, I was just like, “Okay… when do we get back to the mystery?”

I’m in the mood for more mysteries. I think their necessarily dark moments are satisfying my desire for darker reading (for Halloween). I’ve got another Sue Grafton book lined up, B is for Burglar, but I’m not all that excited about it… I kind of want to re-read a Sherlock Holmes novel, especially since I’ve got The Beekeeper’s Apprentice on the way.

Of course, I still have The Jane Austen Book Club to finish, as well as a book I started last night, Life of Christ (by Fulton Sheen). I’ve had that one sitting on my shelf for a long time. I didn’t realize how long until I opened it up and found that I had purchased it at my home town bookstore, The Book Nook. Since that was the case, I can’t have purchased it any later than 2002… Yes, I occasionally procrastinate. I know this surprises you, but there you have it. – Mrs. Hall