St. Philip of the Joyous Heart - Book 3

I seem to be only able to read children's books right now. This book was our religion read aloud, these past few weeks. I had planned to read it two years ago when Hannah was staying in Rome with the University of Dallas. So I'm a little late. I knew nothing about this particular saint and picked up this book at a used book sale. It is a Vision book. I think Becky and Sean found it fairly interesting. I found it very much so. It is a little bit cloying and dated but for the most part it is well written. It is an older hard back edition and in the back it has the little manilla pocket with a library card stuck in it that used to be the way we checked out library books. There is a stamp on the back that says St. Mary of Celle School Library. First of all, I've never heard of St. Mary of Celle. Secondly, where do you think it might have been located? The last person to read it was Kim O'Conner, January 29. I wonder what year? The book was published in 1957. I wonder how Kim is doing today?

St. Philip was known for his patient perseverance and his cheerfulness (also his ecstasies, healings, visions and levitations). I think it was good to read about him to my often complaining, disgruntled children. I don't know how much scratched the surface, but I am praying some of it penetrated!

One funny thing is that I never knew the origins of the word Oratory. St. Philip seems to have founded them. At the same time I was reading about this to the kids, I was kind of daydreaming about going to England for our upcoming 25th wedding anniversary (in November). I was looking at different hotels in London and I stumbled on one that said it was a very short walk to the Brompton Oratory! This just after finding out what an Oratory is! Do you think that is a sign that we should go to England for our big anniversary? I am certainly reading it as such!

So I am glad I finally read the book and learned about St. Philip Neri. And now I am wondering what our next religion read aloud should be. Any suggestions?

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

The Canterbury Tales (retold) - Book 2

I am continuing to pre-read possible selections for our Medieval studies next year. This week I read Geraldine McCaughrean's retelling of The Canterbury Tales published by Puffin Classics. I have a confession to make. I have never enjoyed the actual Canterbury Tales. They are too cynical, bawdy and slapstick to my tastes. I recognize on an intellectual level why they are so important to the development of English literature. I understand what a wonderful window they give us into that time and place, but I still don't care for them.

However, Geraldine McCaughrean does a wonderful job of retelling these stories. They are not dumbed down. The author is a good writer and is able to capture the flavor of the old language while still making things easily accessible to the modern child. Thankfully, the bawdiness is reduced and tactfully handled so that they are appropriate for middle school children. I don't know when I've enjoyed The Canterbury Tales more.

So this version goes on my recommended list for next year.

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

Otto of the Silver Hand - Book 1 - 2013

Lately I've just felt completely snowed under by life! I stopped going to facebook thinking it would help free up more time and it did. But like sand filling in a hole you're digging, that free time got swallowed up by other things, somehow. Anyway, here we are, it's already January 13th and I am justing posting book 1 for my 52 Books in 52 Weeks Challenge. I started reading another book (hopefully that will be Book 2 or maybe 3) on January 1st, however, just before I finished it I managed to mislay it. I found it again several days later. And I still haven't finished it. Ah well. Enough of that.

Otto of the Silver Hand by Howard Pyle is a lovely story, It is set in the dark ages of Medieval Germany among the feuding robber barons. Otto is the gentle son born to the ferocious Baron Conrad Veulph and raised in a monastery until his father comes to get him to teach him how to carry on the Veulph name. Great suspense, tragedy and heroism ensue.

Pyle writes exquisitely. He captures those olden days so well, his characters are beautifully and fully drawn in a sparse way. Pyle uses quaint language so skillfully and vivid descriptions of castles and armor, that the reader is completely transported to these days of old. One of the loveliest things about this book is its illustrations. Howard Pyle was an awesome illustrator that even Vincent van Gogh admired! He started the Brandywine School of Art which included his students such as N.C.Wyeth and Jessie Wilcox Smith.

This book is part of a fun project I've been launched on. I am exploring possible books to be used next year for Aquinas Learning's Schola Alta I program. I am definitely putting this book on my recommended list!

Two thumbs up! For more book reviews go to Read 52 Books in 52 Weeks.

Don Quixote - Book 17

I read Don Quixote.  Oh yes I did!  And you should too!

It took me a long time to get it read and kind of slowed me up on my 52 books in 52 weeks project.  But that's okay.  I'm not behind yet!  And I'm glad I read it.  For one thing, I'm going to Spain this summer, so I wanted to read something classic from that country.  For another, it is a world class piece of literature and I'm slowly expanding my list of greats that I've got under my belt!

The translation that I read is an old edition that I found years ago on my parents' bookshelf.  When they passed away I took and it sat for years on my bookshelf, unread.  The prospect of going to Spain soon is what finally made me resolve to read it.  Walter Starkie was the translator and he is quite the character.  He wrote a very long and entertaining Prelude that is pretty much brilliant.  Starkie was an Irish academic who was sent by England to Spain during World War II.  Starkie was Catholic and so he fit in in that way.  He apparently was quite fluent in Spanish and in love with the culture and he became a respected scholar not only of Cervantes but also the Romani, or gypsies of Spain.

Don Quixote was actually much easier to read than many other classics I've tried to tackle.  I think one reason is that I was reading it in translation.  It isn't like trying to parse through Milton or Chaucer.  Starkie was funny in that he translates the many peasants in the story as speaking with colloquial Irish accents and idioms.  It was a weird disconnect because while I knew I was in Spain, I kept imagining the voices with Irish accents!

The two main characters of the story are, of course, Don Quixote himself and his squire Sancho Panza.  Don Quixote is a middle aged man who has read too many romances of knightly deeds.  He's gone mad with this obession and has convinced himself that he indeed is a knight-errant from the earlier age of chivalry.  He bedecks himself out as best he can and sets out to have adventures.  Since all knights need a lady love to adore from afar he picks some woman he has only a passing knowledge of and names her Dulcinea del Toboso.  He acquires a squire, a peasant from the same town, named Sancho Panza.  There are all sorts of minor characters as well.  Some that appear and disappear and some that show up again at the very end of the novel.

This book reminded me a lot of Shakespeare's comedies.  It is one tale after another of rollicking, slapstick humor. It is full of word play and convoluted situations.  Cervantes is very clever and like Dante, he take jabs at personalities and issues going on in his own day.  Don Quixote is mad but he is also highly principled, with great courage and a strong sense of duty and honor.  He is actually quite wise.  The same goes for Sancho Panza, who is extremely funny and wise in his own way.  The story actually references Shakespeare a lot which surprised me.  I didn't know that Shakespeare was so popular a poor soldier (which Cervantes was) would be so familiar with his works.  Several times Hamlet is quite obviously referenced.  And there is a similiarity in that we get to see how all these minor characters react to Don Quixote's madness, much the same way in which we learn of the character of the people who surround Hamlet when he seems to be mad.

Cervantes is very clever.  Apparently the first book of Don Quixote was published and became a huge success.  So Cervantes wrote a second and third book as sequels.  What's funny is that he uses the first book as a ploy in the remaining two books.  People who read about the ficitonal Don Quixote want to meet him and you are never quite sure if it is because they really believe he's a knight errant or if they just want to sport with him in his madness.  People go to great lengths to play jokes on Don Quixote and his squire.  Really the whole thing is very tongue-in-cheek.  But it is gentle too, because everyone comes to love Don Quixote and his squire, Sancho.

This version of the book was slightly abridged and was only 593 pages long!

I give Don Quixote two thumbs up! It takes a while to plow through but it is well worth it!

For more reviews please go here.

Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm - Book 16

I read Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm to to my 10 year old daughter, also named Rebecca. It is a classic story written by Kate Douglas Smith Wiggin, who also wrote another story we enjoyed, The Birds' Christmas Carol. The prose is old-fashioned and lovely. I'm always amazed at how elevated the language in supposed children's books was back in the good old days. I think people just thought in more nuanced ways.

The story opens with Rebecca arriving by stage coach at the home of her two maiden aunts. Her own mother married badly, in the eyes of the world, and is left a poor indebted widow with seven children. They have the terrible shame of having a mortgage on the family farm (how quaint, to be ashamed of being in debt!). The maiden aunts have been persuaded to take on the raising of Rebecca to help out with the finances. Rebecca's mother hopes it will be the 'making of her.'

Rebeccca is only ten when she arrives. She's a plucky young girl with charisma. She lives on a deeper plane than most of those around her and has a special gift for poetry. Aunt Miranda, her dried up, narrow-minded, New England-frugal aunt makes Rebecca miserable at first but as the years go by, Miranda comes to love her and Rebecca learns to forgive her aunt. There are lots of well drawn characters that inhabit the little village of Wareham, the stage coach driver and his wife, Rebecca's kinder maiden aunt, Jane, Rebecca's best friend Emma Jane, her school teachers, her annoying schoolmate, Huldah, etc.

I found the story and character of Rebecca really charming in the first part of the book, when she is younger. As the book progresses and Rebecca goes away to boarding school for her high school career, I found that author switched subtlely to a more tell than show way of illuminating Rebecca's character. This bothered me a bit. Also, there is a growing, but very mild, romantic development between a much older man and young Rebecca. At the end of the book you discover, in a very poetically obscure way, that the older man, Alan Ladd is indeed in love with her. He's 34 and Rebecca is still 17 at the end of the book. I guess I am too much a creature of my time, but I just find that age difference creepy. It always bothered me in Jane Austen books too.

But overall, the book is very charming in that old-fashioned way. If you want to read a piece of turn of the century Americana, this is the book for you!

One last thought. The book reminded me, initially, of Anne of Green Gables. There is a similiarity in that they are both coming of age books about a plucky poor girl succeeding in life, mostly through education. Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm was written in 1903 and Anne of Green Gables in 1908. Frankly, Anne of Green Gables is the better story, but this one is very much in the same vein and is worth a read as well.

I read this book on my Kindle.

For more book reviews go to 52 Book in 52 Weeks.

How Civilizations Die - Book 15

Warning! The subject matter in this review is controversial!

Whoever has the most babies, wins! I have said that somewhat jokingly in debates over contraception, abortion and gay marriage. I'm socially conservative about these matters, but when I say that line, it usually kind of startles the other person, at least momentarily. The point I'm trying to make is that after one is done contracepting, aborting and exalting homosexual sex, the people who actually have babies will be taking over the world. Those would be the quiverful Christians, orthodox Catholics, Mormons and fundamentalist Muslims. People who are social liberals focus on 'rights' to the point where they can't see the forest for the trees. That's because they have so divorced sex from procreation they don't even see the two as connected anymore! I never knew if my own personal conclusions panned out in reality, except that I occasionally read about how Europeans are below replacement levels or that the Russians are begging people to have babies because they fear that in a few generations, their civilzation will be gone. So I was intrigued when I cam across this book, How Civilizations Die; And Why Islam is Dying too.

The author is David Goldman, an economist, someone I'd never heard of before (which isn't saying much since I am very ignorant about such things!) who apparently has made a name for himself in conservative circles under the pseudonym Spengler. He apparently was a major force behind the rise of The Asian Times for a period.

Since I don't know diddly squat about economics and demographics, I found all the statistics and number crunching and projections rather baffling. I have no way to really critique what the author asserts. However, I can understand what his premise is and that he is using all these stats to buoy up his predictions.

Goldman's premise is that civilizatons die when they decide not to produce enough children to continue their own culture. This decline in population usually follows the pattern where religious belief has fallen and a secular culture has arisen. European countries exhibit this pattern. Since most European countries are not reproducing enough children, this will lead to all kinds of horrible economic problems because you don't have enough workers, tax payers, etc to keep a country going. Not to mention the loss of that civilzation's culture. As I said, I've heard this particular viewpoint before.

What is surprising is that Goldman cites numbers that show a very sharp decrease in births in major Muslim countries. He specifically talks about countries like Iran, Egypt, Tunisia, and Turkey. He goes on to analyze in great detail each country's particular plight. In Iran for example, the birth decline has been happening ever since the Shah in his attempt to secularize Iran and bring it up to compete with the modern West, focused on educating women. Turns out there is a direct correlation, pretty much everywhere, that the more women are educated the less children they have. This makes sense because if a woman is busy getting a degree, it is hard to be bearing children at the same time. But even after the Ayahtollah came back into power and imposed a theocracy on Iran, birthrates continued to decline and drug abuse, alcoholism, and prostitution, especially with the upper class (!) increased. Apparently, Iran has this thin layer of theocracy at the top, but everyone else is disillusioned by the oppression and has basically given up hope. Having children means you are invested in the success of your country/culture. Not having children means something has gone terribly wrong. Goldman goes through each country citing statistic after statistic to illustrate his point. And even further, countries that see themselves on the brink of extinction, as these dramatically falling birthrates play out into reality, means desperate nations willing to take out their 'enemies' as they go down themselves. So this fear of disappearing makes nations more unstable and more willing to do irrational and scary things like bomb everybody else into nuclear annihilation.

Goldman talks about the signifigance of religion in countries which do have more children, like Israel and the U.S. Goldman is a religious Jew and very pro-Israel. He's also very pro U.S. He analyzes both in light of what he considers to be the saving grace (if I may express it that way!) of the Judeo-Christian view of sacrifice and relationship with God vs. Islam's view of sacrifice and relationship with Allah. Of course, he sees Islam has being defective in these regards. Goldman thinks that Islam can not withstand the onslaught of modernity the way that Jews and Christians can. He goes into detail about the Koran and the cultural perspective it creates that makes it so brittle. In fact, the author really delves deeply into history itself, studying the decline of various civilizatons in the past. The reason why Greece fell is because it stopped reproducing enough people to support the armies it needed. The culture of pedestry and the idea that children belonged to the state (as in Sparta) both helped the decline in population. The reason why the Roman empire fell to hordes of Barbarians was because of the huge reliance on slavery and the cultural disincentives to produce many children. At the time, Romans were into homosexuality, infantcide, abortion. The rise of Christians and their rejection of these things, contributed to their growth in numbers. Of course, disease and warfare played a bit part too.

Goldman traces the decline of Europe's population back to the Thirty Years War and the rise of Nationalism. This is where he kind of loses me. I think I wasn't reading closely enough so I didn't quite get the connection. I feel the need to go back and reread this portion of the book. I keep telling my husband, whose degree is in economics and who loves statistics and graph charts, I want him to read the whole book so I can discuss it with him. I just felt like I missed so much in the book due to my own ignorance.

For me the elephant in the room for this book is the fact that the Earth has more people on it than ever before! While certain civilizations are on the decline, to little ole me, that pattern of rise and fall of various populations is probably pretty natural over the millenia of existence. I don't feel the need to panic quite so much. Perhaps this is because I'm Catholic rather than Jewish. Jews have always have to fight against possible extinction. That is the whole history of their people! However, again just for me personally, the best things about Western Civilization, whether it is Ancient Hebrew teachings, Greek philosophy, Roman justice, Medieval theology or Renaissance art is that it is all contained in the history, culture and teachings of the Catholic Church. If that Church is increasing in Africa and South America (which it is), then the world will be fine. The leadership might shift but I don't see annihilation, at least not due to decreasing population in the West, as a threat.

Goldman has great hopes for both Israel and the U.S. because these two Western nations are still having enough children. There were many dire predictions that Israelis would be outnumbered in time because the Muslims around them were having more children. Goldman quotes Arafat as saying that his greatest weapon is the Muslim womb. However, this has not happened. Births are actually decreasing in the Muslim world and the Israelis are having more children. In fact Orthodox Jews have the most children anywhere! By virtue of this fact, the Orthodox population is growing at a much faster rate than other types of Jews. The group that reproduces the least is the secular, liberal Jew.

While secular culture is rising in the U.S. there is still a solid portion of the population who cling to religious beliefs and these people are having enough children to keep our civilization going. I would say that Obama's policies of trying to make contraception and abortion so available is a scary development, but it jives exactly with the secular/religious divide on population. So in the end, I'm hopeful, because socially liberal people will simply not have enough children to continue to be a dominating force, once the baby boomers have passed away. Instead all those big families with lots of kids, and these by far tend to be religious, will eventually rise to dominance. I actually know at least three families where the mother is pro-choice and very socially liberal and yet these families do have at least 4 kids. The moms simply liked being moms so it was their 'choice' to have a 'big' family. However, I know a lot more conservative families that have six or more kids, so just from my own anecdotal sampling, I think Goldman is on to something.

Goldman is a really good writer. Throughout the book, he sprinkles witty aphorisms which he calls Spengler's Laws. This somehow reminded me a bit of G.K. Chesterton. The other thing that impressed me is just how smart Goldman must be! Apparently, not only is he great with numbers when it comes to finance and economics, but he also is fluent in a few languages and almost got a Ph.d in Music Theory! He also obviously knows his history very well. I read several reviews about this book on Amazon and someone called him a polymath. Yep! He is one smart guy! His writing isn't arrogant at all or anything like that, but just the depth of analysis of the material and the expanse of his knowledge is impressive.

All in all, I enjoyed this book. It was a bit over my head because of my own ignorance, but what I could glean from it was illuminating. I'd like to read it again, just to get a better handle on the subject matter.

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

A Thousand Years Over a Hot Stove - Book 14

It took me a long time to get into this book. I was about half way through before the author stopped getting on my nerves so badly. I had been so excited when I impulse-bought it. I'm on this homemaking kick and the idea of looking historically at how women have been cooking meals since way back when sounded wonderful! I love old cookbooks. I love doing things like going to colonial re-enactment parks and examining everything in the kitchen. But this book proved to be rather disappointing. The problem is the author's perspective struck me as superficial and her tone as preachy. And instead of giving in depth history in an engaging but objective way (like other popular historians) she kept injecting her own reactions and feelings. I really didn't care for her writing style. It struck me as being a sort of popular magazine kind of writing that doesn't do serious history well. This book won the James Beard Foundation Award (whatever that is; I recognize Beard's name as a big one in the cooking world). What kept me going is my interest in the topic Schenone was covering. And while I learned some interesting new bits of information, most of it was a survey of things I already knew. It was nice to have all the info packaged together in chronological order, though.

The book began all right. In the Preface, Schenone talks about her family heritage and what inspired her to want to write the book. All the personal stuff seemed appropriate there. The first chapter however, instead of being solid history, is Schenone's imagined understanding of 'All Woman', that is actually what the author calls the prehistoric women ancestors of North America. Everything is wildly romanticized in such a policitally correct way, it is nauseating. (In fact, I checked the reviews of this book on Amazon and while a lot of people gave it good reviews, some really panned it. And one person did mention how nausating All Woman was! Bingo! Exactly my reaction!) Then we move on to Native Americans and the paradise the women lived in, apparently, before the coming of the evil Europeans. I know that many, many terrible things were done to the Native Americans and that the appearance of the European settlers tolled the death knell for their culture in many terrible and profound ways, but Schenone's priggish lecturing on this history, instead of letting the history speak for itself, grated on my nerves to the point that I had to keep putting the book down. Instead of feeling sympathetic, I just felt annoyed. Here's the problem, I think. Schenone, instead of writing history that lets the reader process, evaluate and empathize, tends to emote her own judgemental opinions. In one line that inadvertantly made me laugh out loud (very inappropriately so!) she says, when talking about women raising funds for charity through church cookbooks, "I sadly report that the ladies of the Presbyterian Church of Houston did not include any recipes from the Mexicans or Indians who had lived there long before them." This is not a historian who tries to understand the mindset of those she studies. She looks back into history clucking her tongue and shaking her head over how blind and ignorant they were in the past. Unless this clucking wouldn't be politically correct. Then she practically gets all rhapsodic on you!


Perhaps if she was a better writer and historian, she could get away with interjecting her own opinion, but she is neither, and so she takes something that could be a serious study and laces it with her own personal reactions and p.c. self-righteousness. What's ironic is that Schenone decries this very sort of thing in the writing of Victorian cookbook authors who advised woman on how to run their households and maintain their family's health. Excuse me. You might have heard my loud derisive snort when I read Schenone's line about how Catharine Beecher was a prudish writer who annoyed Schenone. All I could think was: "Well, you're really bugging me, lady!" Anyway, am I reading Schenone's personal diary here or am I reading a history of women cooking in America?

Another thing I found annoying was the lack of footnotes. Schenone does have a bibligraphy for each chapter at the end of the book, but she doesn't tie assertions she makes to any authority. For example, at one point she states that 'rice was worshipped' in the Carolinas when rice plantations were at their peak. I doubt very much that rice was worshipped like the Native Americans might have worshipped corn or something. She means that production of rice was vital to the economy of that place and era. She uses that gushy word 'worship' though. She could have cited statements made by the plantation owners about how important rice was, maybe waxing poetic about its glory. That would have felt a bit more scholarly, to my mind. But there's nary a footnote anywhere to support the many statements of that sort Schenone is so prone to making.

About halfway through the book, I finally could ignore the author's tone and just read for the history content. Maybe her writing got better at that point. But again, I felt rather disappointed because there wasn't a whole lot of new material to me. I had not been aware of the food riots of 1917, but everything else was rather a rehash. In fact the last part of the book began to cover the same territory as Radical Homemaker but didn't go nearly as in depth or come to any sort of conclusion.

The thing that saves this book is that it is loaded with lots of drawings, paintings, posters, cookbook covers, advertisements, and photos of women at work preparing food. She also includes excerpts from letters, articles and books that reflect on women and their roles as cooks. These are fascinating. Schonere includes many recipes from different traditions and old cookbooks. These also are wonderful. The book is very visually enticing with big illustrations and recipes dominating the pages.

To me, this book is the kind that you might pick up and glance through for about 20 minutes while browsing at Barnes and Noble. That's all it is worth. Don't bother to buy it, though.

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

Radical Homemaker - Book 13

The full title of this book is Radical Homemaker; Reclaiming Domesticity in a Consumer Culture. It is written by Shannon Hays who has a Ph.D. in Sustainable Agriculture from Cornell. Even while Hays was ambitiously pursuing higher education in order to fulfill the feminist call to economic independence in the corporate world, she was also growing up and living on a farm where neighbors helped each other out, grew their own food and were much more self-reliant than most of society; a society which has shed all the skills and know-how of being self-sustaining and has opted to buy more and more goods and services to make up for that loss of know how.

Hays uses Betty Freidan's The Feminine Mystique as a starting point. She lauds the feminist movement for freeing women from oppressive stereotypes but she rejects the model upon which they based their strategy. Hays traces the history of domesticity back to pre-historic times and then back up to the present era. The problem with feminism is that it requires women to exit the home in order to gain economic independence. The only thing is everyone still needs a home! Originally both men and women were workers at home. Men built the home, chopped firewood, butchered animals, tooled leather, etc. Women cooked, spun and knitted wool, sewed clothes, preserved food. And plenty of the jobs overlapped. The division of labor that left women in the home and forced men to go out to a workplace happened with the industrial revolution. This eventually led into a consumer economy where supposed economic health for a family came to mean two income earners to afford a house with a big mortgage, multiple cars, buying instead of growing and making food, buying clothes instead of making one's own, putting children in child care and schools instead of having them at home to learn and help.

Radical Homemakers have rejected the idea that consumerism should be the basis for our lives. Hays compares working for corporations with little to no job security, the expectation of working long hours, the long commutes, as a type of slavery, where the employee can't leave the job because they can't afford to; they are trapped there because of debt and the need for health insurance. The job actually generates more debt because of all the incidental expenses this lifestyle entails: child care, transportation, car insurance and repairs, convenience foods and health care (and a lot of health issues so rampant today like depression, diabetes, etc actually stem from the stressful corporate consumer lifestyle!).

Radical Homemakers have opted to drop out of this type of culture and reclaim the home. They have chosen to base their life decisions on four tenents, what builds up these four things: family, community, social justice and the environment. Hays says that households should once again become producers not consumers. Every home should be comprised of not just living people but all kinds of living things, gardens, yeast, fermentation, livestock, etc.

All of the twenty people/couples Hays studied choose to live alternatively, either in small houses they have refurbished themselves, or in trailers or with extended family. They grow much of their own food via gardening and raising chickens or livestock. They barter often with neighbors and others in their communities. They are clever about living happily with very limited incomes. They enjoy doing the things at home that allow them freedom from the materialistic and promote deeper family and community ties. They are very conscientious about ecological factors and social justice issues.

Hays identifies seven subtle characteristics or skills that these Radical Homemakers have cultivated that allow them to live these alternative lifestyles. They are: 1) nurturing relationships, 2) working with a life-serving economy, 3)cultivating an ability to self-teach, 4)setting realistic expectations and limits, 5)redefining pleasure in their lives, 6)rediscovering the taste of real food, 7)adopting a fearless attitude in withstanding contrary cultural expectations.

Hays uses the term 'extractive economy' often in this book. This is our current economy which requires all our needs to be met through consumerism. She juxtaposes this against a 'life-serving' economy where actual money plays a secondary role and meeting basic needs happens through skilled labor and creativity that directly meets the need. Hays quotes the likes of Wendell Berry and Thomas Berry throughout the book. She has really researched all the issues that the Radical Homemaker lifestyle raises and she systematically addresses them and argues that the Radical Homemaker has chosen the better way. For instance, instead of paying so much for health care insurance, Radical Homemakers prefer to put their money towards eating real food, growing medicinal herbs and seeking alternative medicine instead of playing into current, overpriced and often questionable health care practices. They've jumped off the hamster wheel lifestyle of living for one's paycheck, which means they live much less stressful lives which are intrinsically more satisfying because they focus on relationships and creativity. Stress, we know, is a great harm to health and so they have rid themselves of a major aggravator of major health issues.

The book is chock full of instances where the different people who identify as Radical Homemakers grapple with various situations such as paying for housing, pregnancies, dealing with schools or homeschooling, family illnesses, etc. There is a lot of practical information to be gained by reading their stories and hearing their voices as they describe the reasoning behind their life choices.

I found this book to be thought-provoking and very interesting. This is a kind of feminism I can get behind. One where men and women are equal and both engaged in living not lives of materialism and status, but centered in family and deeper pursuits. Toward the end of the book, Hays says that Radical Homemaking needs to be a bigger movement in order to change our society's negative and destructive trajectory that destroy family and personal satisfaction. However, I simply don't think it is practical to expect everyone to get off the grid, so to speak. I do think that a significant minority could. And I do think it is a growing trend. At least I have witnessed it in the Crunchy Con, real food, homeschooling circles I travel in.

The very end of the book has slightly more in depth biographies of all the people/couples Hays interviewed for her study. This part was a bit redundant, as I felt I had come to know these people in the earlier section of the book. And in fact some of the write up in the biography section is word for word what was in the prior chapters of the book. So that last section felt odd and unnecessary.

I read this book on my Kindle.

I definitely recommend this book. I'll be mulling over the ideas presented for a long while to come. By the way, Hays has a website: radicalhomemakers.com

For more book reviews, visit 52 Books.

I Can't Believe I'm Sitting Next to a Republican! - Book 12

So I've been fighting a nasty cold this week and as a result I couldn't sleep well. I spent my time reading How I Joined the Vast Right-Wing Conspiracy (And Found Inner Peace) and then as a follow up, this book. I was very curious to see what the author, Harry Stein was thinking during the whole Bush vs. Obama thing but I didn't enjoy this book as much as the first. While Stein still made many good points, he was a lot angrier and, well, basically it is just a long litany of complaints about how conservatives just can't get a fair shake these days. I think he must feel very, very isolated in the New York City publishing/journalism world and he says as much. His changing views have alienated him from his neighbors, long time good friends, even his own father. The book lists different careers or geographical locations where conservatives have been isolated: journalism, publishing, social work, academia and the public school system, Hollywood, Madison, WI, and of course his own part of the world, New York City, and even San Francisco. There's 11,000 registered Republicans in San Francisco! Poor things!

I do agree that the ascendency of Left ideology has brought about a general decline in many areas of society. And I do think that Lefties have behaved in more and more thuggish ways; to wit, the recent Susan G. Komen debacle. Stein uses behavior he witnessed during the Obama campaign as his example. He does tend to rant about how they are all illogical and think with their emotions. I think this tends to be true as well. However, Stein is not a good critic here in this particular book. He delights in taking jabs and to me seems a little hysterical himself. For example, at one point he mentions a contestant on Jeopardy (who happened to have come from the town I currently reside in) and how in the interview portion of the show she told Alex Tribec how she was a social studies teacher who had fasted for Ramadan just to see what it was like. Stein says something really cutting about her. I was baffled until I realized that he was just knee-jerk reacting to her 'political correctness.' Huh? Do we have to judge everything everybody does in terms of whether they match our notion of what is politically correct? Why can't a teacher, who by the way, teaches about other cultures for a living, and who probably has Muslims in her classroom (My next door neighbors are Muslim) who might want to see what living through Ramadan is like? I simply see nothing wrong in that whatsoever. It made me feel like Stein's version of reality would be just as oppressive as the Leftists are. And frankly, the Right has no monopoly on manners or measured discussion. They can get pretty darn rabid too!

The other thing that rankled me about this book is Stein's constant amazement at how knee-jerk liberals were about the Iraq War. He went on and on, yet he never once even mentions possible reasons why the war was a good idea. I guess he's assuming only people in favor of the war will read his book so he doesn't need to explain, but if you are going to complain about how irrational the other side is, it might be a good idea to shore up your version of things with some reasoning.

I think that Stein's writing has changed a bit from his first book on this topic (he's written other books too on other topics) and this I Can't Believe I'm Sitting Next to a Republican (a line someone once said to him at a party, as they visibly backed away from him!). I think Stein unfortunately was influenced by the likes of Anne Coulter and Rush Limbaugh. While every once in a while one of those two will say something on the mark, to me they are pretty hateful. I always feel like I need to take a shower after listening to them (usually inadvertently! I'll be stuck somewhere with someone who is a regular listener). So Stein's writing takes on a nastier edge in this book. I think he kept things much lighter and more genuinely humorous in his first book.

I still agree with Stein's take on Feminism and its effects on society. He did a nice bit about homeschooling and how returning to the classics and traditional education is the direction we need to move in. It was very interesting getting the inside scoop on just how biased the media really is, biased to an absurd degree. And Stein does a great job of searching out those plucky conservatives who in spite of the cards being stacked against them, manage to carve out careers in Hollywood or are brazen enough to start a local conservative talk radio show in Madison, Wisconsin. I found the letter from his friend who has been living in France for years chilling, as he (the friend) checks off all the things wrong with France currently and predicts that this is the road Obama wants to lead this nation down. His friend says something like, I don't have to predict failure, I'm living with failure right now, when he talks about the heavy tax burden (that creates black markets), the lousy healthcare, the fact that France has to import workers because of its low population growth, etc.

Stein ends with the rise in independent, conservative publishing houses that have proven to be very successful as a sign of hope that there can be a free exchange of ideas, though the general environment might be very inhospitable.

This book helped me sort out some ambivalent feelings. I discovered I am not a Republican. I started out as a pro-life Democrat but that party betrayed me and my ilk a long time ago. So, I am politically homeless. But you know what? I think I like it that way!

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

How I Accidentally Joined the Vast Right Wing Conspiracy (and found inner peace) - Book 11

I am always interested in conversion stories, usually of a religious nature but sometimes in other aspects too. I saw this book listed on a blog I stumbled on one day that had a long list of recommended books. The blog itself was proudly conservative in point of view and one of the many books listed was this particular one. I thought the title and premise sounded very intriguing. Harry Stein, the author, went from being a 60's radical on his college campus to a Republican-sympathizer proud of the moniker 'conservative', even though it does make him wince at times (mostly because for years and years he wouldn't have recognized himself in that way.)

Stein is an amusing writer. I wouldn't call him the deepest thinker in the world. He spent most of his journalistic career writing for the likes of Esquire Magazine and TV Guide. However, he is a very honest observer and he thinks things through to their logical conclusions.

Stein traces his metamorphosis from anti-war demonstrator and free love advocate to career journalist who eventually has an ethics column in the Wall Street Journal. His job gives him a close up of the media and slowly he begins to rebel against the political correctness and groupthink that has him and his cohorts in such a grip that they are literally afraid to report the truth about things but always feel compelled to give a particular spin to stories. And most reporters don't even realize how biased they are. He has great admiration for those who are consistent and cut against the grain, like Nat Hentoff, for example. He blames most of his transformation on meeting his wife who inspired ridiculously old fashioned feelings such as: couples ought to be faithful to one another, and parents should put their children ahead of their own careers. He has the audacity to be influenced by his wife who followed her motherly instincts (even though she had a seemingly great and glossy career) and decided not to do like all her peers and have daycare raise their children. He began to hate the sexualization of our culture because he instinctively found it a crummy place in which to raise kids. He traces it back to feminism. He does a very insightful analysis of feminism and how much harm it has done society. He is also very fair and talks about the good as well, but his gift is honesty and he can parse through the good and the bad with real clarity.

I really think the force that moves Stein's thinking from point A to point B is that he can't stand hypocrisy in others and especially in himself, and because of that he's self-reflective and also more open-minded. He went from hating pro-lifers to being sympathetic. He still thinks abortion should be legal, so he isn't that socially conservative but he was shocked to discover upon meeting pro-life advocates that they didn't actually hate women but rather saw the unborn child as the victim. This was a great revelation apparently. Because of abortions in his past he can't quite get himself to draw the obvious conclusion. However, he does wind up saying that the argument boils down to which thing you see as more sacred: human life or a woman's right to choose. To me, the idea that these two choices are weighted equally somehow, defies belief but Stein hasn't gotten there yet.

I don't think I've shifted as much as Stein has. I've always been pro-life, anti-death penalty and very, very cautious about war. I just can't get as worked up over 2nd amendment rights as I do the First or Fourth or Fifth. And Stein really goes after affirmative action in the last section of his book and frankly, I've always been sympathetic, though not uncritical, of its attempt to even the playing field.

This book is a little bit dated in that it is written during the whole Clinton-Lewinsky debacle and Stein plainly sees Clinton as everything that's gone wrong with liberal thinking. He can't stand the guy! It had me wondering what he thinks now. I'm looking forward to reading his more recent book on this subject: I Can't Believe I'm Sitting Next to a Republican!

I got this book out of my local library. Stein is a very funny writer. This book had me guffawing in places. I appreciated his honesty, clarity and wit.

Two thumbs up! For more reviews visit 52 Books.

Keeping House: The Litany of Everyday Life - Book 10

Keeping House: The Litany of Everyday Life by Margaret Kim Peterson is a very thoughtful, precise and inspiring look at the Christian dimensions of housekeeping.

The author's voice is very calm and practical and I found myself nodding in agreement throughout as she made observations about the way our culture dismisses housekeeping as not valuable and yet at the same time demands perfection in terms of size, design, up to the minute upgrades in appliances and decorating, etc. Our consumerist, keeping up with the Jones, brainwashing via advertisements and media pushes against our busyness and devaluation of the actual things needed to be done over and over again in order to achieve that Hollywood-inspired perfection.

Mrs. Peterson uses the idea of liturgy and prayers of litany, where the same actions, responses and rituals are performed repeatedly in order to add meaning to our lives, not to detract from it. So too could the menial and mundane daily activities that necessarily make up the act of keeping house. If we are embued in a Christian mindset these actions can be a path to living out a Christian life. For example the liturgical year is a very orderly and satisfying way to organize the living out of our faith in time. We repeat the same celebrations and rememberances every year. This gives us comfort and allows us to dig deeper each year when we once again confront that aspect of the Christian year. Housework can also be approached this way. Mrs. Peterson does a wonderful job of going through each aspect of housekeeping from clothing storage to cleaning to cooking and examines our preconceptions in light of the Gospel.

I should probably read this type of book continually. Housekeeping is such a very dreary thing to me. I have never felt any satisfaction from it and I fear my bad attitude is so deeply wedged into my pysche that I may never be free! But books like this really are inspirational and do seem to lighten the burden psychologically for a brief period of time for me. I'm like a leaky sink where the stopper doesn't work. You can pour the water in but it drains almost as fast as it goes in. So I need continual inspiration in order to be full!

Willa had a book study on Keeping House on her blog. I wanted to participate but as usual, I started out gangbusters and soon fizzled. I think I'm going to avoid books studies in the future as I just can't seem to discipline myself to keep up with them. But Willa always has such a profound and clear response to things. I love to read her thoughts and analysis.

In her conclusion, Mrs. Peterson says: "The sacramental quality of home means that a well-kept house is a means to an end, not an end in itself. Faithfully keeping house is a way to remember God's promises of home and actively participate in the fulfillment of those promises." Having that kind of understanding makes washing the dishes for the third time in a day or spending yet another hour trying to hold back the chaos of clutter that perennially builds up around me, much, much easier to bear.

I read this book on my Kindle. I hope to reread it again as I think it is the type of thing that would give even more inspiration the second time around.

Highly recommended, if you need inspiration in this area of your life.

For more book reviews, go to Read 52 Books.

Henry V - Book 9

Sean and I read Henry V by William Shakespeare together for part of his 7th grade literature study. We watched the movie first and Sean wants to watch it again now that we've read the play. This is the Branagh version. I'd like to watch the Olivier one just to say I've seen it. I really don't like Olivier's acting all that much. I think he was too stiff and overacted, but I've heard he did this play well. I actually saw this play a long time ago at the Folger Theatre in Washington D.C. I think I was right out of college so it was over 25 years ago!

I love this story. It has that wonderful rousing St. Crispian's Day speech in it that gets anyone's blood up, even a non-violent kinda person like me! And it has the funny scenes in French. And it plays off the idea of Henry as one who grew into manhood when the duties of kingship were thrust upon him and his carefree, reckless days of youth were left behind. He is portrayed as strong and chivalrous, courageous and just. I do think Shakespeare could have edited down the bit about the glove, though. I thought it went on too long and took too long to make a point. But that's my only quibble. Here's some info on Henry V.

So two thumbs up from me! Go here for more book reviews.

Meet the Austins - Book 8

The only Madeleine L'Engle books I was familiar with were the Wrinkle in Time series and some of her adult books. I've read a Circle of Quiet and maybe another book by her. But quite a while ago I impulse purchased Meet The Austins, I think after my sister recommended it. She had read it aloud to her son. Well, for some reason, after years of it sitting on our bookshelf, I finally picked it up and read it to Becky. We loved it!

I think the book is set in the 1950s. The Austins are a family that live in New England somewhere in an old rambling house out in the country. Their father is a doctor and their mother keeps house. The story is told from the perspective of Vicky the 12 yo. She's got an older brother named John and two younger siblings, Suzy and Rob. The family is a happy, well-adjusted one. Things get disrupted when Maggy, an orphan, comes to live with them. The book is about Maggy's first year with the family. It is a very sweet and touching book told really accurately from the 12 year old's perspective. It was nice to read a book set in more modern times where the family actually says prayers at night, goes to church and discusses God. It is a very comforting book. Apparently, it is part of a series and we hope to read more of the Austins adventures.

Another two thumbs up! Go to 52 Books for more book reviews.

Driving Over Lemons - Book 7

Driving Over Lemons by Chris Stewart is about a man and his wife who decide to move from England and buy a farm in the Andalucian area of Spain. In fact the subtitle on my edition of the book is "An Optimist in Andalucia", though I notice the Amazon page I've linked to says "An Optimist in Spain." I guess they thought Americans wouldn't know where Andalucia was.

Chris Stewart is an excellent writer. The front book flap and the reviews all mention that he was a drummer for the band Genesis, but he never mentions that fact at all. I think his life is much too rich with his adventures in Spain to dwell very much on his past careers. He is a very funny writer, very self-deprecating, sort of in the manner of James Herriot in the All Things Bright and Beautiful books.

Stewart was making his living doing three things, writing travel books, playing guitar in a Russian restaurant in London and sheep shearing, both in England and as a contract worker in Sweden! Both he and his wife dream of moving to Spain. They both seem pretty comfortable with the language as that doesn't seem to pose much of an obstacle for them. She runs a horticulture business and he, of course, dreams of becoming a sheep farmer. His wife, Ana, bravely sends him off to Spain to buy a farm with all their money. He finds one outside a small village in a gorgeous setting. He is undaunted by the fact that it has no running water or electricity or even something as convenient as a stove. There's also the rascal of an owner who sells the farm but then takes months to actually move out (they live there with him for several comical months).

Stewart is really good at relating the different personalities of his new neighbors and he tells one funny story after another. Oh, I forget to mention the farm doesn't have a road going to it. Stewart has to build a road and a bridge to get to the farm! The adventures deepen when Ana after years of trying, finally gets pregnant. The couple has their daughter Chloe.

I found this book hard to put down. Stewart is a sweetheart of a guy and the book leaves you with warm fuzzies. Plus it was a great peek into a country and culture I know very little of. Two thumbs up!

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

The Abolition of Man - Book 6

The Abolition of Man by C.S. Lewis is really a collection of two essays or lectures and an appendix. It is a fairly quick read. I read this on my Kindle.

In this book, Lewis addresses the purpose of education and the dangerous impact modern thinking has on true education. He begins by criticizing a grammar book that was sent to him for review. He finds that the authors of the textbook, thinking that are teaching the student skepticism about being unduly influenced by propaganda and advertisements, really have taught the students to fear or dismiss what is good, true and beautiful. The textbook authors do this by reducing human response to beauty or anything deeply appealing as something that is mere subjective feeling and has nothing to do with the truth of the thing being considered. The textbook authors, probably without even realizing it, have bought into the modern view of relativism and this is the gospel they preached in between the lines of teaching grammar and rhetoric.

Lewis then sets out to show that there are self-evident core values that every human culture has acknowledged. He looks at all different Ancient traditions from Babylonian, to Lao Tzu to the Ancient Greeks, the Old Testament, Buddhism and Christianity to show that humankind, independent of each other's societies, have each come to a realization of the Tao, as Lewis terms it. He uses this term because he is not particularly interested in converting anyone to his own faith, but rather is trying to show the universality of ethics, so he chooses a non-western word to convey his idea. In Christian terminology we would call the Tao, natural law.

Lewis' further point, once he establishes that there are these universal, self-evident standards of good and evil, is that the modern viewpoint wants to deconstruct these truths in the name of progress. Scientifically, the west has excelled because it has embraced the scientific approach of deconstruction and analysis, but morally we suffer from this because modern thinking wants to debunk everything! Lewis talks about how we want now to 'see through' everything. We think this will get us to the truth, but if even self-evident truths are 'seen through,' we will eventually see nothing. If everything is transparent the world is invisible! There's nothing there to guide us anymore.

Lewis paints a very dark picture of what becomes of man when he wants to 'progress' past natural law, or Nature. When mankind wants to become the final arbiter, the social engineer, the eugenic designer; when those few who gain that sort of power begin to manipulate the rest of society, because they concoct their own ad hoc law based on temporary things instead of following the natural law, they actually will cease to let humankind be human. Instead we will become pawns and less than human. That is the meaning of the ironic title of this book. This relativistic, scientific worldview which promises so much progress and freedom, will actually be the "freeing" of man from being human. Humankind will be diminished not elevated. He'll become less because he does not live by the Tao that allows him to be what he was created to be.

Of course, Lewis is much better at building an argument and conveying it than I am at summarizing it! As I read the book, I felt I needed a little guidance. I googled around and found this very helpful study guide. I know also that the blog Ordo Armoris had a book study not too long ago though I did not follow it.

The appendix to this book is very interesting. Lewis compiled quotes from ancient writings from all over the world to illustrate his point about the Tao. This collection reminded me of an exhibit that I saw several years ago at the John Paul II Cultural Institute in Washington DC. The exhibit was a collection of art work and quotes that showed how natural law existed in all different cultures. I found the exhibit so intriguing and ultimately comforting, for I think that though our world might go through periods of confusion where powerful but unwise people make decisions that guide us down that dark road towards Lewis' prophecy, because God's law is written on the heart of His children, that Tao can never be extinguished forever. It will always rear its surly head!

This gives me hope in our own time when abortion on demand has become such a precept of our culture, control over reproduction and our bodies to an unhealthy and ultimately destructive degree is seen as a right, and the fact that our government and all the politicos seem to buy into the very worldview Lewis warns against in this book. It is a dismal world out there, but as time passes, these things will pass too and once again the universal will somehow reassert itself. Eternal truths never die.

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

The Little World of Don Camillo - Book 5

This collection of humorous and touching stories was first published in Italy post World War II. The two main characters are Don Camillo, the feisty village priest and Peppone, the equally feisty Communist mayor. These two men, who apparently have a long history of partisan fighting together in the hills during the Nazi occupation, love to hate each other. Their constant one-upmanship is the fodder for these highly enjoyable stories. Don Camillo's first instinct is always to fight and then think later. This gets him into lots of ticklish situations. The tension in post World War II Italy is palpable. The violence and scars of the war are everywhere and though the characters of Don Camillo and Peppone are lovable and entertaining there is a dark, brutal undercurrent that is always present. Don Camillo tries to be a good priest but he has to deal with Peppone who can't quite be an atheist (He wants Don Camillo to baptize his baby with the name Lenin). The third main character in the book is Christ. The Christ up on the crucifix in Don Camillo's church talks to him. Christ is by turns encouraging, sympathetic, stern, chiding, tongue in cheek; always wise and always affectionate.

The characters of Don Camillo and Peppone are based on a real life priest and mayor the author knew. Giovanni Guareschi was a magazine editor, writer and cartoonist who spent time in concentration camps before being freed and returning to his native Po Valley. These stories were published in magazines at first but proved so popular they were collected into books. Three books were published in the author's lifetime but after his death five more volumes came out. The first book, The Little World of Don Camillo, was made into a very popular movie. Here's a clip from it.

The edition I read was printed by Benediction Classics. It is a slim paperback volume, pricey at $20.99 and there are numerous typos in it. It looks like something that was transcribed and then printed from a Pdf file. It has a Lulu publishing look to it. I guess the original book went out of print at some point and no big publisher has offered to reprint it. It Italy apparently this book is in its 7th edition. Someone started a webpage, www.doncamillo.net but frustratingly, it seems incomplete.

I had heard about these stories for years. I can see why people recall them fondly and treasure them. Guareschi was a delightful story-teller with memorable characters and whose writing was intelligent, insightful, clever and wise. The presentation of Christ is especially wonderful.

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

Death Comes to Pemberley - Book 4

This book seems to be making the rounds! My husband gave it to me for Christmas and I think he was a little hurt that I didn't grab it up and read it immediately. I was busy finishing up other books and then got waylaid a bit by Book 3. Anyway, this was a fun read, though I was a tad disappointed with it as well.

First of all, I thought such a veteran and successful writer as P.D. James would not fall into the trap of so many other lesser writers who write sequels to Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice; that is, spending so much time recounting what happened in the original book. I like the fan fiction novels that assume the reader has already read P&P. There is no need to rehash in so much detail something that is so well known. But the first chapter of Death Comes to Pemberley does just this in a rather awkward and wooden way. I almost didn't want to continue reading it, but since it was a gift, I felt compelled to read more. Also, I thought maybe the book would pick up once the author got all that 'bridging' out of the way. And it did! Once James was telling her own story, it got more interesting. I was truly interested in the mystery part of the book; what exactly had happened and how all the pieces fitted together. And the ending of the book was satisfying to me. But I had some problems with James' characterizations of the well-known personalities from P&P. Here's my list!

Elizabeth - she isn't nearly as light and witty. One of the strong points of P&P is the delightful dialogues that go on. This was missing. I liked Elizabeth well enough here, and initially in this story, you see things from her point of view but somewhere in the middle the author switches to Darcy's. I missed Elizabeth presence in the latter part of the book.

Darcy - Darcy doesn't seemed to have grown at all in the six years he's been married. In fact, he's still hashing out the old guilt about everything concerning Georgiana and Wickham and Elizabeth.

Wickham - Wickham's personality just wasn't developed well to me. James keeps reiterating her own details about Wickham, that he fought in the Irish Revolt and was wounded and cited for bravery. And that he fought under Colonel Fitzwilliam, somehow. And James had everybody refering to Wickham as Darcy's 'brother.' Even Darcy calls him his brother! What! They played together like brothers as children, but Wickham was always the Steward's son and not a brother.

Denny - He is the poor murder victim, but again I couldn't figure out why he was friends with Wickham if he had such virtuous impulses which inadvertently led to his demise.

Colonel Fitwilliam - he's a major actor in this story but I never got a feel for his personality. He was very different from the character in Pride and Prejudice. This is supposed to be because of the death of his older brother and his becoming a viscount, I think. But he and Darcy speak to each other so stiffly, it seemed unrealistic that two men who knew each other so well would converse the way they do here.

Jane and Bingley are just extras in this book. Mr. Bennet makes one enjoyable showing. Mrs. Bennet is missing almost completely from the book.

One thing that bothered me, and again, it is something that bothers me about fan fiction for this novel, is when the writers take a phrase directly from the original book and put it in another person's mouth. For example, at one point Darcy is talking about 'polluting the shades of Pemberley.' Would Darcy really say this? This was something spoken by Lady Catherine de Bourgh to Elizabeth when the former went to visit the latter and warn her off of marrying Darcy. This was a private conversation between the two and was spoken as an appalling insult to Lizzie. Would Darcy really have thought the same exact phrase?

Or another thing that rankled a little bit was when Lady Catherine de Bourgh says to Darcy in a letter to mention her name somewhere in London and he will be attended to. Lady Catherine said this to Lizzie in the original book to show her patronizing and condescending over bloated self-importance. Would she really show that same kind of attitude to Darcy himself? Hardly!

And one more thing! The characterization of Charlotte's attitude to Elizabeth was wrong I think. James writes that Charlotte had never forgiven Elizabeth for her reaction to her engagement with Collins. That just isn't true. I think in P&P there was awkwardness there after Charlotte's marriage but I don't think Charlotte felt any animosity to her old friend. In fact I remember a line in the book where Charlotte entertained hope that Darcy was showing attention to her friend, so any rumors started there were partly out of wishful thinking for her friend and not out of malice.

I did however enjoy the references to Emma in this book. (ed. I forgot there is also a reference to Persuasion as well!). I thought that was a nice touch.

I could go on and on picking apart certain things both in the references to Pride and Prejudice and in the mystery, but that would be unfair. This is a fun mystery; a light read that pays homage to Austen and doesn't warrant too much close inspection! Although I've heard much of P.D. James I haven't ever read her mysteries. I did read Children of Men which I thought was a powerful and provocative novel. I think maybe her forte must be genres not of this nature, but this was a noble effort made to write an Austen inspired novel. I'm glad I read it.

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

Bean Blossom Dreams - Book 3

Bean Blossom Dreams by Sallyann Murphey is a delightful book about a family's decision to quit city life and move to a farm. It is a memoir of their first two years of adjusting to country life. The author was born in England and worked as a BBC producer before meeting her American husband (a professional free lance photographer). She moved to Chicago to be with him and eventually they had their only daughter Charlotte, or Charley as they call her. They grew dissatisfied with the pace of their career-centered, city life and wanted a better place to raise their child. So taking a huge financial risk, they bought a 42 acre farm in Brown County, Indiana, took the plunge and moved. And they have never regretted it! Their farm is a beautiful piece of property and a wonderful place for their daughter to grow up. Both the Murpheys had enjoyed gardening. Sally loved flowers and herbs and Greg, her husband, loved growing food! They eventually accumulate something like 72 animals, most of these poultry, but with a number of stray dogs and cats factored in there as well. It turns out Brown County is the pet drop off capital of the world, abounding in abandoned pets.

It takes a while to acclimate and Sally relates humorous stories of city slickers getting used to the earthiness of farm living, like dealing with ticks, snakes and tornadoes. There's a lot of blood and death on a farm from marauding foxes and stray dogs and even the occasional sudden attacks on the chickens from the family's usually well behaved German Shepherd. And there is tons of physical work involved in maintaining a farm and preserving their harvest. But the Murpheys tackle it all joyfully. They have good neighbors who willingly and generously help them learn the ropes.

The book relates all sorts of stories about Charley's delight in gardening and farm life, dealing with their testy horse, Hotshot, learning to track deer, and especially, cooking. At the back of the book, the author included many wonderful sounding recipes as well as garden plans and instructions on how to can food and make potpourri. I actually copied out some of the delicious sounding recipes.

I'm on a homemaking, back-to-nature-and-the-simple-life kick right now and Bean Blossom Dreams fit that mood perfectly. This book was written back in 1996. Bean Blossom Farm still exists and apparently the Murpheys still supply seedlings and food at farmer's markets as well as make organic fertilizer. They've got a facebook page! This was a library read for me, so I apparently read the first edition. The link above is to the 2nd edition which has an updated afterward. I didn't have the benefit of the update, but the minute I finished reading the book I did a google search to find out how the family was doing now!

I give Bean Blossom Dreams two thumbs up! For more book reviews, please go to 52 Books.

Salt; A World History - Book 2

I found the book Salt; A World History by Mark Kurlansky, to be a fascinating read. I like quirky histories. Kurlansky traces the impact of salt, the only rock we eat (as the back cover states) on human history. We need salt to live and so the obtaining of salt was one of the very first reasons humankind developed trade and engineering and even taxes (salt was often a great source of revenue for the state).

This book is filled with all sorts of interesting facts about salt. Kurlansky follows a chronological timeline, more or less. He starts with the Chinese and how very early on they learned to use natural gas (deposits of which quite often are near salt deposits) as fuel to boil brine to get salt. He takes us on a trip around the world to Europe, the Caribbean, India, and the Dead Sea, among other places, traveling through history and exposing the intricate connections that the need for salt has created.

Kurlansky tells us everything! Do you know why Salzburg is so named? Did you know the 'wich' ending on the name of many British towns signifies that a saltwork existed there? Did you know that Roman soldiers were often paid in salt and thus we have the word salary? In the Austro-Hungarian empire they actually held balls and built a beautiful chapel down in the salt mines. Did you know that in the Middle Ages the Church's required fast days drove a need for fish which in turn needed to be preserved, and so we have the great popularity of cod and herring. Transportation of salt was a major engineering problem. A large reason for the building of the Erie canal was to transport salt from Syracuse which used to be a great salt producing town!

I enjoyed learning about the Basques, how caviar is fished from the Caspian Sea and why Ghandi chose to walk across India to harvest salt by the sea as a symbolic protest against the British Empire. Really the whole thing was just so fascinating to me. Things I had never thought about or connected were revealed in this book.

Kurlansky's writing style took me a little while to get used to. He writes in kind of clipped vignettes at times. I could almost picture him researching for this book and writing little tidbits of information on index card after index card and then putting them in the order he thought worked. I could imagine him then transcribing each card onto his manuscript. His book reads like that. It felt especially choppy in the beginning and the very end, but the vast bulk of the book seems to relax and flow better. Kurlansky does get a little glib sometimes and as I was initially reading the book, I remembered about Ghandi and his march (not that I know much about Ghandi but I saw the movie with Ben Kingsley a long time ago!) and I thought, I bet Kurlansky is going to mention Ghandi's peculiar habit of sleeping (just sleeping apparently!) with young girls to test himself. Kurlansky reminded me a bit of Bill Bryson who never seems to have gotten over his adolescent delight in salacious facts (salacious! Get it! Derived from the Latin for salt!) and sure enough in the very first paragraph about Ghandi, Kurlansky manages to work that little detail in. So he was a bit predictable in that way.

But aside from the quibbles above, I heartily enjoyed this book. One little touch that I found delightful was that Kurlansky includes recipes from Ancient times to our current age. These are sprinkled throughout the book and I thought added a wonderful touch.

Kurlansky has also written other books on the Basque and on Cod as these things are related (as you discover in the book). I'd really like to read these books as well, especially the one on the Basques.

[A little aside: This book is published by Penguin. I read it in paperback and it was on the New York Times Bestseller list in 2002 or something. Yet I found on page 300 a misspelling of the word receiving! It is spelled recieving! How the heck did that typo get past the spell checker and the editors????? I had one of those 'what is the world coming to' moments when I noticed that. LOL!]

So this book gets two thumbs up! For more reviews go to 52 Books in 52 Weeks.

The Mary Frances Housekeeper - Book 1

The Mary Frances Housekeeper; Adventures Among the Doll People by Jane Eayre Fryer is my first completed book in 2012. I've actually been reading it aloud to Becky on and off for several weeks. This book was written back in 1914 and it is a charming didactic sort of book that teaches little girls about housekeeping duties by telling the story of Mary Frances and how she helps her paper dolls get a house, furniture, clothes and an automobile among other things. The dialogue is quite dated as is the representation of the 'colored' maid and chauffeur. We had to have a little bit of a talk about stereotypes. However what comes through is the kindness of everyone, both Mary Frances' family, her mother, brother and father, as well as the doll family. It is quite comical at points. And it is fascinating to read the homey instructions for how to make an invalid's bed, how to do wash, how to dust properly, etc.

The neatest thing though about this particular Mary Frances book is that it comes with the paper dolls. Becky liked to play with them while I read. And inside the book there are colored plates showing the cut outs for making the furniture. It is really darling!

Jane Eayre Fryer wrote a whole Mary Frances series of books about cooking, gardening and knitting and crocheting. I love the cookbook one. I love to read recipes from the olden days!

This book is very enjoyable if you want to cozy up with your daughter and work out your domestic impulses! The stereotyping of the maid and chauffeur are regrettable however.

For more 52 Books in 52 Weeks, please go here!