When I decided to take a class, I said I would keep up with the reading even though I was just auditing and didn't have to. I wanted the discipline, I said. Well, I didn't quite keep up with the reading, but I got pretty close. Close-ish. So I will try to fulfill my self-imposed obligation to the Spring Reading Thing from Callapidder Days.
Here is my status so far:
- Cry the Beloved Country by Alan Paton: Completed; read this for my class. It was good; not as good as I'd expected given how many people have told me they love it.
- The Plague by Albert Camus: Flaked on this one. Just need to be in the mood for French existentialism to read Camus, and I'm not.
- Seeing With New Eyes by David Powlison: in process.
- The Uncommon Reader by Alan Bennett: Completed! Fun book imagining QE2 becoming an avid reader.
- The Voyage of the Narwhal by Andrea Barrett: Completed! Written about here.
- Flying Cloud by David W. Shaw: I had it in my hand the other day, can't find it now. This is a very small house, I don't know how I can lose things so easily.
- The Code of the Woosters by P.G. Wodehouse: Completed! Fun Jeeves and Wooster book.
- The Pope's Rhinoceros by Lawrence Norfolk: Still planning on this one. I've actually started it a number of times but the beginning at least is quite dense and does not lend itself to short snatches of time.
- Faith at Work by Carol Ruvolo: Started and rejected. Maybe I'll find something to substitute for it.
Thursday, May 08, 2008
Wednesday, May 07, 2008
The Voyage of the Narwhal by Andrea Barrett
This book has sat on my shelf for several years. I thought 15, but when I finally opened it to read, I saw that it was published in 1998. Still, that's a long time to keep an unread novel around. When I decided to attempt Callapidder Days' Spring Reading Thing, I thought it was a good time to haul this out and read it, or not - and if not, move it along.
Well, I am so glad I finally read it, and wish I had done sooner. But, it was timely: set, at the beginning, in Philadelphia, if I'd read it while living in Oregon the place names Conshohocken, Skippack, and Fairmount Park would have been meaningless to me. I'd not have known about Elisha Kent Kane, a 19th century Arctic explorer, with whom I became acquainted during an impromptu visit to the museum of the American Philosophical Society in downtown Philadelphia.
But, you don't have to know where Skippack is to enjoy this novel. It's not a perfect novel. You can read lots of reviews on Amazon and elsewhere. But it is a big, satisfying story. Part adventure - Arctic exploration, part family story - with all the complexities that come with large family relationships, part love story. A story of dreams, realized and not. Bitter failure. Friendships formed and friendships broken by death and by betrayal. Beautifully written, with characters who can be annoying and make you say "why did you do that for, you idiot?" - just like real people. Ethical questions of exploration among unfamiliar, innocent people.
Now I'm in the mood for more Arctic exploration books. I've got The Endurance:Shackleton's Legendary Antarctic Expedition sitting next to me. (OK, Arctic, Antarctic - they're both cold.) Just today I read about Tuning the Rig, story of an Arctic journey. I've requested a book about Elisha Kent Kane from the library. I don't know how long I'll stay interested in Arctic exploration literature. This may be it for a while. Maybe I'll decide to read something else by Andrea Barrett. And, I have other books that have been waiting a long time to be read. Hm, like those books I said I'd read for the Spring Reading Thing. Oh well.
Sunday, May 04, 2008
Homeschool Hi-Light: New Ideas
Fun Learning has a Monday meme: Homeschool Hi-Light. Last week was not a big week for us. We just plodded along, doing our things, finishing up the last days of the 180 days the state of Pennsylvania wants me to document. When our "school year" is over, we'll celebrate and go back to what we usually do. Then, on July 1, we'll start a new "school year" and start documenting all over again.
My kids wouldn't think this is a hi-light but it is for me: finding a great new idea, and thinking of how to incorporate it into our homeschool. The Deputy Headmistress at The Common Room posted a "template" of sorts for Charlotte Mason educators. Now, I am not a pure Charlotte Mason homeschooler, but I am familiar with her and like her philosophy and methods. Finding this template has started some wheels turning for new ways to shake things up in our homeschool come July 1. And that is a hi-light for me!
Go over to Fun Learning and read about other hi-lights, and add your own. You might even get the cute graphic to work; I couldn't this time for some reason.
My kids wouldn't think this is a hi-light but it is for me: finding a great new idea, and thinking of how to incorporate it into our homeschool. The Deputy Headmistress at The Common Room posted a "template" of sorts for Charlotte Mason educators. Now, I am not a pure Charlotte Mason homeschooler, but I am familiar with her and like her philosophy and methods. Finding this template has started some wheels turning for new ways to shake things up in our homeschool come July 1. And that is a hi-light for me!
Go over to Fun Learning and read about other hi-lights, and add your own. You might even get the cute graphic to work; I couldn't this time for some reason.
Saturday, May 03, 2008
Saturday Review of Books
Semicolon's Saturday Review of Books is up. I put up my posts on Journey to the River Sea and The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time. I messed up my link for one of them - forgot to put the book title in... I hope Sherry can fix it.
That is what happens when one is posting about 6:30 am while half-watching tv with a sick child. The only thing we could find was a dog show on Animal Planet. So every time there was a new dog on - which about about every 5 seconds, no attention span problems here - my boy said "Mom, you've gotta look at this one!" Of course none compared to our cute dog Max.
Anyway, as always lots of good reading at the Saturday Review of Books.
That is what happens when one is posting about 6:30 am while half-watching tv with a sick child. The only thing we could find was a dog show on Animal Planet. So every time there was a new dog on - which about about every 5 seconds, no attention span problems here - my boy said "Mom, you've gotta look at this one!" Of course none compared to our cute dog Max.
Anyway, as always lots of good reading at the Saturday Review of Books.
Friday, May 02, 2008
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time
This is another book I would never have thought to pick up on my own. It was recommended to me by 2 women in a counseling course I took this past semester. They had read it in a class on counseling children.
But it's a novel, not a textbook. It's a story told by a 15 year old boy, beginning the day he found his neighbor's dog dead in her front yard. We know right away Christopher is a little different; though it is never explicitly stated, he is autistic. He is also a mathematical savant, and relates better to numbers than to people.
My boy and Christopher share some characteristics. Though my guy has never been diagnosed with autism or Asperger's Syndrome, he is likely on that spectrum. I see my boy a little bit in this passage:
And sometimes when I am in a new place and there are lots of people there it is like a computer crashing and I have to close my eyes and put my hands over my ears and groan, which is like pressing CTRL + ALT + DEL and shutting down programs and turning the computer off and rebooting so that I can remember what I am doing and where I am meant to be going.
This is how I picture what's going on in my boy's brain when we are working on a simple math problem and he can't get the answer out of his head, either verbally or by writing it down; when he feels me getting impatient with him, it becomes even harder for him to get the answer out.
It's a charming and harrowing story. Christopher's family life is not so hot. There are not-nice people around him. There is a lot of bad language.
The author is Mark Haddon, and according to his bio he has worked with autistic children. I recommend this to anyone who knows a kid who is a little different, whether diagnosed with "something" or not.
Update: I should thank Sarah at Smallworld for this book too. I had not realized, till I saw her comment here and went looking on her site, that I'd seen and commented on her review back in March!
But it's a novel, not a textbook. It's a story told by a 15 year old boy, beginning the day he found his neighbor's dog dead in her front yard. We know right away Christopher is a little different; though it is never explicitly stated, he is autistic. He is also a mathematical savant, and relates better to numbers than to people.
My boy and Christopher share some characteristics. Though my guy has never been diagnosed with autism or Asperger's Syndrome, he is likely on that spectrum. I see my boy a little bit in this passage:
And sometimes when I am in a new place and there are lots of people there it is like a computer crashing and I have to close my eyes and put my hands over my ears and groan, which is like pressing CTRL + ALT + DEL and shutting down programs and turning the computer off and rebooting so that I can remember what I am doing and where I am meant to be going.
This is how I picture what's going on in my boy's brain when we are working on a simple math problem and he can't get the answer out of his head, either verbally or by writing it down; when he feels me getting impatient with him, it becomes even harder for him to get the answer out.
It's a charming and harrowing story. Christopher's family life is not so hot. There are not-nice people around him. There is a lot of bad language.
The author is Mark Haddon, and according to his bio he has worked with autistic children. I recommend this to anyone who knows a kid who is a little different, whether diagnosed with "something" or not.
Update: I should thank Sarah at Smallworld for this book too. I had not realized, till I saw her comment here and went looking on her site, that I'd seen and commented on her review back in March!
The Heart of the Matter: Favorite Books
This weeks' Heart of the Matter meme is: favorite books.
Oh my. How can I come up with a list? There are so many! Favorite history books, fiction, science, fun books, grownup books... I asked my girlie and she just stared at me. "That's a really hard question, Mom!"
But then I knew what question to ask next: "What is our favorite readaloud book or series of books?" Before I had the question completely out of my mouth, she called out
Swallows and Amazons!
Yes, if you have read this blog for any length of time you have heard that song and dance before. The Swallows and Amazons books (the first in the series is conveniently titled Swallows and Amazons) is a 12-book series written in the 1930s and set during that time in England's Lake District and other areas. They are beautifully-written (by Arthur Ransome), exciting stories of adventure, independence, self-reliance, fun!
I clearly remember reading the first book. It was almost 2 years ago. We were reading slowly; my girlie was not too into it - there's a lot of technical sailing information at the beginning. But we had taken it on vacation with us, it was the only book we had, so one evening in our hotel room in Fernandina Beach, FL, we picked it up, and - it clicked. Something happened (my girlie says it was the appearance of the fearsome pirate Nancy Blackett) and we were hooked. Over the course of the next year we read the whole series, loving almost* every book.
You can read some of my old blogs posts on the topic here, if you like. You also might want to browse the home page of the Arthur Ransome Society, and this Guide to Swallows and Amazons.
Oh, some details: written for the 9-12 set, I suppose, but they would have been hard for one of my 9 year olds to read, and would probably be interesting to older kids, depending. They are long - 300-400 pages. They have lots of information on sailing but that is not tedious for long, and may not be tedious at all for some kids. A great, great, family readaloud. I cannot recommend them highly enough, and I tell everyone I meet who has any interest in excellent children's literature to read them.
For some reason I could not get the little button for the Heart of the Matter Friday meme, but
you don't really need that anyway. After you go there and read some of the other favorite book posts, go find yourself a copy of Swallows and Amazons! I have a feeling we're going to be rereading it soon ourselves. Probably won't make it through all 12 again as a readaloud, though I hope my kids read them all again someday.
*Missy Lee is not so hot, and contains what, to our modern eyes, are stereotypes of Asians, typical of the time it was written.
I updated my video bar to the right with some short videos of England's Lake District. It's a gorgeous place.
Oh my. How can I come up with a list? There are so many! Favorite history books, fiction, science, fun books, grownup books... I asked my girlie and she just stared at me. "That's a really hard question, Mom!"
But then I knew what question to ask next: "What is our favorite readaloud book or series of books?" Before I had the question completely out of my mouth, she called out
Swallows and Amazons!
Yes, if you have read this blog for any length of time you have heard that song and dance before. The Swallows and Amazons books (the first in the series is conveniently titled Swallows and Amazons) is a 12-book series written in the 1930s and set during that time in England's Lake District and other areas. They are beautifully-written (by Arthur Ransome), exciting stories of adventure, independence, self-reliance, fun!
I clearly remember reading the first book. It was almost 2 years ago. We were reading slowly; my girlie was not too into it - there's a lot of technical sailing information at the beginning. But we had taken it on vacation with us, it was the only book we had, so one evening in our hotel room in Fernandina Beach, FL, we picked it up, and - it clicked. Something happened (my girlie says it was the appearance of the fearsome pirate Nancy Blackett) and we were hooked. Over the course of the next year we read the whole series, loving almost* every book.
You can read some of my old blogs posts on the topic here, if you like. You also might want to browse the home page of the Arthur Ransome Society, and this Guide to Swallows and Amazons.
Oh, some details: written for the 9-12 set, I suppose, but they would have been hard for one of my 9 year olds to read, and would probably be interesting to older kids, depending. They are long - 300-400 pages. They have lots of information on sailing but that is not tedious for long, and may not be tedious at all for some kids. A great, great, family readaloud. I cannot recommend them highly enough, and I tell everyone I meet who has any interest in excellent children's literature to read them.
For some reason I could not get the little button for the Heart of the Matter Friday meme, but
you don't really need that anyway. After you go there and read some of the other favorite book posts, go find yourself a copy of Swallows and Amazons! I have a feeling we're going to be rereading it soon ourselves. Probably won't make it through all 12 again as a readaloud, though I hope my kids read them all again someday.
*Missy Lee is not so hot, and contains what, to our modern eyes, are stereotypes of Asians, typical of the time it was written.
I updated my video bar to the right with some short videos of England's Lake District. It's a gorgeous place.
Thursday, May 01, 2008
Journey to the River Sea
One of the best things about homeschooling is the time to read. So often I wish I could fully educate my kids by just reading great books to them. They can't learn geometry that way, unfortunately (should I have said "alas?") There are few things better than having a good "pleasure book" going.
Journey to the River Sea was our most recent readaloud. We read it so fast I never updated our "current reading" in my sidebar. (I don't know why I even set stuff like that up; I rarely remember to update it.) What a fantastic book. The story sounds quite cliche: set at the end of the Victorian era, a sweet and intelligent child is orphaned, and though wealthy, is sent with a new governess to some nasty relatives. This time, though, the relatives live in Brazil, on the Amazon. This is an exciting book but of course we were never fearful of a sad ending. My kids couldn't wait to get to it every day. I couldn't either.
There was also a bit of serendipity in the book for us. One of the characters is a child actor in a company bringing Little Lord Fauntleroy to the Amazon. Well, that book by Frances Hodgson Burnett was our last readaloud. Those connections just make the reading all the better. My kids love hearing about a familiar book in another book.
The author, Eva Ibbotson, is best known for her fantasy. Several years ago I had read Which Witch and thought it only so-so. I am not sure why I even picked Journey to the River Sea up from the library. Maybe I had read a review of it. In any case, I'm glad I did.
The book had a very satisfying ending for me, but my kids were not quite happy with it - not because it was bad, they just wanted more. More! They asked about a sequel, but I don't think there is one. Tomorrow I might have them write some further adventures to get the ending they'd like to see.
And that is one of the signs of a good book: one we want to go on and on. OK, two signs: one that inspires us to write something of our own.
Journey to the River Sea was our most recent readaloud. We read it so fast I never updated our "current reading" in my sidebar. (I don't know why I even set stuff like that up; I rarely remember to update it.) What a fantastic book. The story sounds quite cliche: set at the end of the Victorian era, a sweet and intelligent child is orphaned, and though wealthy, is sent with a new governess to some nasty relatives. This time, though, the relatives live in Brazil, on the Amazon. This is an exciting book but of course we were never fearful of a sad ending. My kids couldn't wait to get to it every day. I couldn't either.
There was also a bit of serendipity in the book for us. One of the characters is a child actor in a company bringing Little Lord Fauntleroy to the Amazon. Well, that book by Frances Hodgson Burnett was our last readaloud. Those connections just make the reading all the better. My kids love hearing about a familiar book in another book.
The author, Eva Ibbotson, is best known for her fantasy. Several years ago I had read Which Witch and thought it only so-so. I am not sure why I even picked Journey to the River Sea up from the library. Maybe I had read a review of it. In any case, I'm glad I did.
The book had a very satisfying ending for me, but my kids were not quite happy with it - not because it was bad, they just wanted more. More! They asked about a sequel, but I don't think there is one. Tomorrow I might have them write some further adventures to get the ending they'd like to see.
And that is one of the signs of a good book: one we want to go on and on. OK, two signs: one that inspires us to write something of our own.
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