Finished Three Re-reads

The first one was Hold On To Your Kids; Why Parents Need to Matter More than Peers by Gordon
Neufeld and Gabor Mate.  This was the summer group read for the Catholic Relaxed Homeschoolers group on facebook.  As usual, with group reads, the participation was spotty, but still there was a bit of conversation about the book.  I read this book about 10 or 12 years ago.  I remember when I read it then it was so revelatory to me.  Also depressing for the most part, because I could see just how toxic our 1st world culture is to children, how anti-family everything is set up to be.  This time around I still appreciated all the insight but some of it came off a bit forced and I didn't think the authors' suggestions for how to keep kids from becoming so peer-dependent were strong enough to counter all the damaging aspects the authors are so detailed and emphatic about.  The authors never mention homeschooling, which is an obvious way to obviate peer dependence.  Nor did they suggest changes to the school system, for instance, having a teacher for just one year or a bunch of teachers so that there is no genuine way to attach to them, except if you happen to click.  And the authors kept talking about parents 'matchmaking' for their children with other adults but I guess right now with all the scandals in the church, I am not sure you really want to trust other adults to really attach intimately with your children. There's a lot of perverts out there.

So while I really agree with the points made about how much our children need their parents first to develop well emotionally and psychologically,   And peer dependence really is a shallow and insecure thing that breeds many bad things, I was ultimately disappointed with the book.  It just wasn't realistically radical enough for me!

The Odyssey, translated by Richard Lattimore.  This is embarrassing.  This has been a very rough school year and it basically took us all spring and summer to read this book together for Ancient Lit.  But we finally, finally finished it!  I always appreciate it every time I read it (I think this is my 4th time through it) but we just didn't focus on it enough and weeks would go by before we'd remember to pick it up again.  It was a big relief to finally finish it.  Whew!

A Town Like Alice by Nevil Shute.  I first read this back when I was in college.  I went through a Nevil Shute phase.  This was prompted by watching the wonderful 1981 BBC series on Masterpiece Theater.  Rick actually tried to find it on dvd but you can't; it just isn't out there!  I think I know why.  There really is a bit of racism in it.  The book was published in 1950 I think, and they use words like Abo and boong to refer to the indigenous people.  In spite of this though it really is an epic tale of one woman's resourcefulness in the face of overwhelming conditions, both when she is taken prisoner by the Japanese in Malaya during World War II and afterwards when she is building a town like Alice.  The romance between her and Joe Harman is so sweet.  In the BBC series they have them go to bed together but in the book, Joe is so chivalrous and decent.  And they very pointedly don't sleep together before their wedding.  A very refreshing change from the usual.

I really enjoyed revisiting Jean Paget, Joe Harman, Noel Strachan (the attorney) and the rugged Australian outback.


For more book reviews go to Read 52 Books in 52 Weeks.