The Battle of the Villa Fiorita

Well, it's book report time on Rumer Godden's _The Battle of the Villa Fiorita_, which I finished reading last night.

This is a fictional work about a woman (Fanny) who had an affair and was divorced by her husband. She went to live with the new man (Rob) in Italy and two of her children showed up to fetch her back where, in their opinion, she belonged.

So right from the set up you see that this is a book about sin, and that there is probably not going to be any way to have a happy ending. (No spoilers needed for that!) And, true to life, there wasn't. Everyone involved continued to receive ugly consequences and wounds from the sin that had occurred.

Unfortunately the author did not include any significant redemptive value to the story other than showing how the characters, especially the children, grew through their experiences. I found it a story well-told, but not a happy one, and am glad that these characters are not my real life friends, as my heart would hurt for all of them. This is in contrast to the same author's _In This House of Brede_, where I felt glad to know the characters as friends.

Whittington

I want to post book reviews of things as I finish reading them. This one is out of order but it is short and the book is at hand. I picked up a copy of Whittington by Alan Armstrong at one of those "fill a bag for a dollar" sales at our library. Big risk there, huh? It made it into the bag because the cover picture looked, um, interesting.

My copy doesn't have the Newbery seal on it and at first I wasn't sure if it was for adults or children.

It is interesting, though not as I expected. It is a heavy-handed didactic barnyard Charlotte's Web with 16th century lore woven through (the more interesting part to me) and a strong moral lesson on the value of hard work and Learning to Read. 

My favorite parts were a quote near the end which I read aloud at lunch to Devastatingly Handsome and Mr Music, where, IMNEHO, an editor might have been useful: "He went to the side of the ship and untied the blue silk he wore around his neck. He wiped his face and tossed it overboard as a token for the cat." (Mr Music guffawed.) You will be stunned to learn, only a few pages later, that apparently his face was still intact, as we read that the beautiful Mary "touched his face gently, tracing his scar."

The other thing I liked was the listing of sources cited in the endnotes. I appreciate the author's thoroughness in listing everything from 1605 plays (the perfect date to encounter here on November 5th :) ) to The Blue Fairy Book to Robinson Crusoe and Herodotus.

Bean Report, Finally

I am a slow reader these days, not sure why. I finally finished reading Orson Scott Card's Ender's Shadow. Miss Language has been a fan of this series and shared it with Mr Music. Mr Music saw I was ready to read Ender's Game and was quite vocal that I must read Ender''s Shadow first, so that I would not "judge Bean ahead of time." Whatever that means. 

So, I finally did. 

Mr Music keeps asking what I think. 

Well, what do I think? I think I am not crazy about books where babies hide in toilets and children kill other children. And I never have understood why children have to command in this army, anyhow.

But. There were some interesting ideas and some good quotes. Those I marked were: 

"Do you know why Satan is so angry all the time? Because when he works a particularly clever bit of mischief, God uses it to serve his own righteous purposes."

"So God uses wicked peoples as his tools."

"God gives us the freedom to do great evil, if we choose. Then he uses his own freedom to create goodness out of that evil, for that is what he chooses."

So in the long run, God always wins."

"Yes."

"And in the short run, though, it can be uncomfortable."

"And when, in the past, would you have preferred to die, instead of being alive here today?"

"There it is. We get used to everything. We find hope in anything."  (from chapter 16)

~ ~ ~
and

"... the thing with brothers is, you're supposed to take turns  being his keeper. Sometimes you get to sit down and be the brother who is kept." (in chapter 18)

Seems like I have read these ideas somewhere before. :)

Book Review Time

This is an unusual post for me. I am reviewing a book just out. It is by Joshua Becker and is called Living With Less: An Unexpected Key to Happiness. The author sought out some bloggers a few weeks ago to review this and post about it on release day, which is today.  :)

I have been reading his blog for a few months now and appreciate Becker’s call to reducing our possessions and earthly treasures in favor of something better. This new book of his is directed at Christian teens. I was hoping to read a clear call to treasure Christ above all, maybe something in the spirit of an updated version of the old  More With Less.

So. I read the book and took notes, I shall go through them in order.

I was glad to see in the title “an unexpected key to happiness” because it seems true in my experience that usually the places we look for happiness are not the places we find it. And I was pleased with a phrase in the dedication “written for an audience destined to find full life in Christ alone.” 

And then we hit the book itself, which is 104 small pages, plus some endnotes. Becker leads off with statistics about the way Americans live - loving our stuff and being in debt for it. He tells a lot of stories along the way and then ties them in to his points, and he is talking not only about rethinking our possessions, but also actions and words. He introduces the idea that we need someone in a father-like role to guide our spending, and suggests that Christ will take that on, working out of love for us. He makes a case to establish Christ’s authority in our lives. 

In chapter 2, Becker talks about what Jesus had to say about possessions and I liked his saying this is an “incredibly inconvenient teaching.” 

He goes on to explain his family’s choice of minimalism and how that has worked out for them.

Becker talks a lot about our heart and finding joy by letting go of possessions, and talks about how his ideas resonate within the heart. He then gives a long list of benefits of limiting your possessions - from very practical (can live in a smaller house) to rather abstract (fewer places for your heart to go), and finally rounds out the “heart section” by talking about the impact of these choices on our hearts - things like increased generosity.

He ends the book with a kind of challenge to take Christ literally in His words about poverty, forsaking treasure on earth, and sharing our possessions.

So.

There is a lot here to like. And I do not feel I have much of a handle on how his target audience might process his words. But, the bottom line for me is rather ironic. I think Becker needed to minimize this book. I find it overworded and, dare I say, cluttered?

I hope that those who read it will keep the valuable parts, truly consider the words of Christ in a counter-cultural way, and get rid of the flotsam.

Thank you for the chance to review this book. I found it thought-provoking and challenging.

Where Was John Piper on My Wedding Day?

I have to admit that it never occurred to me to wonder, but today I found out. If you are curious, you can find out by reading his book, David Brainerd. It is available for download at the link, and is a quick read, well worth the time. 


Two brief quotes that challenged me: first, from Brainerd's diary, "I am not worthy of a place among the Indians"... now, why do I never remember the honor and kindness God has shown me in allowing me to care for my family and those around me? I am not worthy...  and second, that Jonathan Edwards was able to call Brainerd's death (in his home, from TB) a "gracious dispensation of Providence" even though his Edwards' own daughter  died of TB herself after nursing Brainerd. I am pretty sure I could not call something leading to my child's death gracious.


Anyhow. I am sorry John Piper didn't get a slice of my cake, but he had other things to do that day. And that is good, too.

Stuck in Neutral

Long time since I've done a book review, but here goes. I read the young adult book Stuck in Neutral by Terry Trueman. It is a very quick read and rather compelling. Shawn is 14 years old, completely disabled, and convinced his father is planning to kill him, yet Shawn has no way to communicate or do anything for himself. 


I really can't say if I like this book or not or if I would recommend it or not. I know I would not read it to any but the hardiest of children. There were parts that creeped me out (crept me out?) and also some parts I liked and found life-affirming. 


I was interested in Shawn's story because two of the Bananlets have significant cognitive disabilities and I am always trying to understand what life might be like for them or for others with even greater needs. The glory of this book is that it gives hope that even in cases that seem the most profoundly hopeless, we just do not know what sort of life is really there but is invisible to us because of inability to communicate. My favorite paragraph challenged me to reconsider what pleasures would be remain to someone completely disabled:

I love my mom, brother, sister, dad. Although I can't connect with things through my senses, there is an energy inside me and around me; somehow all the things I think about and remember turn to joy. Pure joy: favorite movies, paintings I've seen and loved, music on compact discs, pinecones, chocolate pudding, the taste of smoked oysters (thank you, Paul!) the sound of motors, a bright-red 1966 Ford Mustang. I love the  idea of books and the dusty smell of them on bookshelves, the scent of Comet in a stainless steel sink. I think of the way, on cool mornings in November, the sun pours in through my window, and covers my hands. I think about my baths every night with Mom dripping warm water from a big soft sponge down my back, the hairbrush passing through my hair after the tangles are all gone, all of it turning to joy. Life can be great, even for me. Even for me.

Reach Out: Hold Back. Where is Safety?

I am (finally) finishing reading Dan Allender's The Healing Path. I liked it so much I am sure I will re-read it. This is a book mostly about using the pain in your own life to help you connect with others and allow Christ to bring healing. Anyhow, I wanted to share a couple quotes from the book. 


And it ties in with this song Miss Language introduced me to by Vienna Teng: 

It ties in because in the chapter 11, "Inviting Others to Live," Allender talks about how to have meaningful discussions with others, specifically about how we balance pushing others away so we do not feel shame but do not push them too far away to where we are lonely and lost. I found that interesting to think about. I am so glad to know the One Who can save me. 


But now back to the book quotes. I love this definition of faith: "Faith is trust in the goodness of God. I grow as I recall and recollect the stories of God in the Bible, in the lives of others, and in my own life." And then later, "What then is faith? It is the childlike wonder in a story so good it can't be true, but deep down to our toes we know if it is not true then we don't exist." 


Then this section on hope: "Biblical hope is substantial faith regarding the future.... Hope is the dream of shalom, the anticipation of joy that courses through us and prompts us to rise and rebuild, to envision and risk for what is not yet.... Faith and hope are inseparably linked. Faith is hope regarding our past; hope is faith regarding the future. Gabriel Marcel defined hope as "a memory of the future."