Reading 1776, Pulitzer Prize winning author David McCullough, made me realize just how close we Americans came to continuing as a British colony for a long time.

McCullough did a masterful job in compiling and presenting the records and papers of important men and bodies on both the British and American sides of the matter of independence. The descriptions of both the noble traits and the frailties of the key player in the pivotal year were very enlightening. I had always held George Washington to be a man of almost superhuman strengths. To read of his indecisions and misjudgments, as well as the intrigue on the part of some of his staff, made the story of our independence even more a thing to be cherished as a gift!

I highly recommend this book for your enjoyment!

mood: contemplative tags: history, joy, reading

This post is part of the Book Club Challenge by Marathon Bird.
*************************************************************************************

The book club assigned book for the month of May was Watership Down. I had never read it, I think in part because I had the idea that it was an innocuous children’s book that was too long. But I was completely wrong. I no longer think it is too long and I am not at all sure I would call it a children’s book. I kept wishing for a lapine dictionary, only to find a glossary at the end of the book. Too late, I had just finished the story.

Richard Adams did a great job of developing characters and making them appealing. I came to care about a great number of the players in the tale of the rabbits moving to establish a safe and pleasant home at Watership Down. I am not sure who I would call my favorite character, all of them had attributes that were compelling. I found myself identifying with Hazel, trusting Fiver, admiring Bigwig and fearing General Woundwort. As I read the book, I was especially entertained by Kehaar, the seagull that became an important ally in the battles of Efrafa. I think the reason I liked him is that I know some folks in the Caribbean that sound a lot like the feathered fellow from the “Beeg Vater”.

Adams was masterful in moving the story along and making me believe these rabbits have proverbs and prophecies, longings and loyalties. I am not sure what message Adams hoped to transmit to the readers, but the one that rang out loudest to me was that everyone in a community is an important element of the society, from the smallest and meekest to the wisest and strongest.

I was pleased with the book and am pleased that I spent the time to read it. The next selection for the group is The Hiding Place, by Corrie Ten Boom. If you would like to participate in the book club, read the book and post a review on June 25. Happy reading.

tags: book, reading, waatership down

A couple of years ago, on a blog site that no longer exists, several of the bloggers got together in a book club. The idea was that we would choose a book, all of us would read it and then meet at a blog designated to host that event and engage in discussion of the book. It was a great time and stimulated us to read a broad range of works.

I am happy to announce that the blogger who established our group and hosted the first discussion has announced that she is kicking off another group. The date has been set for the first day of discussion is December 13. The book she chose as the first one this time is Lottery by Patricia Wood. For more on the Book Club , check out Mom and More, also known as Merry Jelinek. Merry is a mom and a writer from Chicago. She has strong opinions and is a cordial hostess. I think you will find the time to be well spent.

I recently posted the original articles from a book discussion I hosted as a part of the Club. You can get a bit of the flavor from Revisiting the Sun Singer. (I wish I could point you to all those discussions, including the comments, we shared, but they do not exist anymore.)

mood: excited tags: bloggers, books, discussions, lottery, patricia wood, reading

I've recently finished reading Orson Scott Card's Hart's Hope. Card is a great writer. His prose is beautiful. The book, however, wasn't 100% satisfying to me. Not only was the violence a little difficult to stomach at times, with the intertangling love affairs turning out to be decidedly confusing and even troubling, but there is one particular problem with the narrative that disturbs me. This is the ambiguity of the narrator for most of the book, and then the way the reader's sympathy is sort of "cheated" at the end of it all.

I have written a fuller review of the book at my Reading List blog. I've taken a fuller look at this troubling point in that entry. Even though, I freely admit, the writing is very well done. (If it weren't, I probably wouldn't feel "cheated" in the end.)

mood: frustrated tags: books, fantasy, hart's hope, orson scott card, reading

I've finished a couple of good reads lately, and thought I should mention them here.

I read A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius by Dave Eggers, which was first recommended to me by a fellow blogger on another site. I enjoyed the work, overall, though it wasn't a perfect read for me. It was worth the time I invested in it, though, and I have loaned it to a friend now.

I also read 2 kids' books by Ed Wicke, The Muselings and Screeps. I wrote a little more about those on one of my other reading blogs, if you are interested to see more about them. Quite fun reading, and reading them is a good way to relax and spend an afternoon.

mood: content tags: books, dave eggers, ed wicke, reading

If you like reading historical fiction, or books with a sense of place, you might enjoy a good discussion we just had over at my new blog. Here are the posts where that happened. Feel free to drop in, and do leave a comment if you have something you'd like to share.

A Sense of Place, in so many words
A Time and a Place
Just Give it to Me Straight
Recommended Reading: Singapore
Recommended Reading: Shanghai

If you have a place-related book (or books) you'd like to review and have linked from my site, stop in here to let me know, and I'll put that link up.

mood: drained tags: books, historical fiction, historical novel, reading, recommended reading

I've been a little out of commission lately because I've been deciding what to do about my blogs. I started blogging a couple of years ago with a single blog, and loved it. That site eventually fell apart. I branched out, and at one point had 15 blogs going. I suppose, technically, I still do. At any rate, I've decided on a direction for my blogs, at last, and am streamlining. I will still keep up my lower-maintenance blogs (like this one) from time to time. But if you want to see more well-thought-out blogs on a regular basis, you might want to visit one of these:

Shelly's blog, where I will discuss mostly books and movies
Peregrine Online, my travel blog


Hope to see you there!

mood: busy tags: blogging, blogs, books, consolidation, reading, travel blog

I'm back home from Shanghai, and got some good reading done while I was there. I finished several back issues of Books and Culture, which offered a lot of good articles to provoke thought. I also reread The Tempest and The Rover in preparation for upcoming lectures, and decided to read Pericles while I was at it. I enjoyed that very much.

I finished Nicholas Clifford's The House of Memory while I was in Shanghai. Being a novel about Shanghai, I found it to be an appropriate read while on the road. I really liked the book, and loved how it wove two eras from China's history together. I left it with a friend there, and I think she is going to enjoy the read very much. If you are much of a China buff, this novel really has a lot to offer.

mood: happy tags: books and culture, china, pericles, reading, recommended reading, shakespeare, the house of memory, the tempest

I spent most of the afternoon in bed sick yesterday. Waugh's A Handful of Dust was just the right sort of company for the afternoon.

I finished up on my study of 1 Timothy yesterday too. Other than that, I just did a little reading of students' papers that need to be marked. Now that's fun reading...!

mood: sick tags: 1 timothy, books, evelyn waugh, handful of dust, marking papers, reading

I've made a lot of progress on Wangerin's The Book of God lately, but keep forgetting to post that here. I am really enjoying the way he's unfolded the story, and the narrator does a nice job with it. I've got about 3 more hours of listening before it is done. It's been a nice companion while commuting.

Waugh's A Handful of Dust is proving to be quite interesting, and I am enjoying it. I like it better, so far, than any of the other novels by any of the Waugh brothers that I have read in the past.

The rest of my reading yesterday was from 1 Timothy and Deuteronomy.

mood: sick tags: a handful of dust, books, evelyn waugh, reading, the book of god, walter wangerin

I should be finishing the Chalker book today, after having spent some time reading it yesterday. It isn't going to make my top 100 favorite books, by any means. Not even my top 1000 favorites. But, I hate to not finish a book I've started, so I'll keep reading (besides, I have less than 100 pages to go).

I did enjoy the time spent making last minute touch-ups to my lecture on poetry and gender, revisiting the poetry I'll be talking about one last time. I also did some reading from King Lear, geting ready for the follow up lecture to that one next week.

And, I read 1 Timothy 6 once again.

mood: bored tags: jack chalker, king lear, reading, recommended reading

昨天又是一样， 没有什么改变。 我继续读 Jack Chalker 的小说 Echoes of the Well of Souls. 我知道这是很出名的一本书， 可是我不太喜欢。

我也继续准备后天的演讲。那是说读了教科书里的诗歌和棵文。

也读了提摸太前书的第六章。

(For regular readers of my blog -- if there are any -- who don't read Chinese, please forgive me. I am using this spot, from time to time, to practice my Chinese writing. It might become more frequent over the next year and a half as I work toward taking some written exams at the end of next year. Obviously, I have a lot of work to do before I am ready for that.)

mood: drained tags: books, jack chalker, reading

I got a little time to read some of the two novels I am working on now, the Chalker novel and the Evelyn Waugh one. Nothing very exciting in either, to this point, though the Chalker one is picking up a little. I got to listen to Wangerin's novel a bit in the car today too, and that was fun.

I spent most of my reading today working on the poetry and related material in my textbook on Literature and Gender. I've left that off the past few days of my reading list, though I have been working on it for some time. I only thought of it because it became something other than routine for me yesterday. I was revising my lecture notes, and was reminded of a toy that my parents got back at the release of Star Wars Episode 1. It was one of those free toys that comes with a meal at fast food places. It reminded me of some things I am going to discuss in my lecture this week. I am trying to arrange to have some photos done of the toy this week, and I will post an article in relation to my class either here or at one of my other blogs.

Also did more reading from 1 Tim 6 today. Will continue to cover that chapter this week.

mood: contemplative tags: books, literature and gender, poetry, reading, star wars, toys

I finished reading Dan Browns Deception Point tonight. I enjoyed it, after all. I do, however, find it too like all the other Dan Brown stories I've ever read. That's not to say it's bad, just that I might wait a good while before reading any more of his. I did really like the epilogue of the book... if we're supposed to be the most evolved species on earth, then why do the lesser organisms know when to leave well enough alone? That was a clever touch.

I did some reading from Pudd'nhead Wilson and 1 Timothy 6 too.

tags: books, dan brown, deception point, reading

I had a quiet house, seemingly just made for reading, today. I got caught up a whole lot.

I'm about half done with Pudd'nhead Wilson now, and am loving it (no surprise). It is just such a reminder of how great a write Mark Twain was. His body of work is just amazing.

I'll probably be half done with Deception Point before I go to bed. It is picking up some, now that I have gotten into it. I might also get another chapter of They Went in before I get to bed too.

I also did a lot of reviewing of King Lear and Twelfth Night for class tomorrow, and reading from 1 Timothy.

mood: relaxed tags: books, dan brown, deception point, mark twain, pudd'nhead wilson, reading

I didn't get much time to sit and read today, but I did get started on Pudd'nhead Wilson. I love Mark Twain, but have never read this one.

I decided to wait on Salmon of a Doubt. I am going to read the Dirk Gently series before I read that one. It might take a little time, so I am going to try to get a little more ahead of schedule with school work before I start on it.

mood: exhausted tags: books, mark twain, pudd'nhead wilson, reading

Yesterday was a good day for reading. We finished up Wilkins' Tooth by Diana Wynne Jones, and I finished reading Mostly Harmless (by Douglas Adams). I haven't decided if I will start on Salmon of a Doubt yet or not.

We also finished up Mark 13-14.

mood: busy tags: books, diana wynne jones, douglas adams, ken follet, mostly harmless, reading, wilkins tooth

Today I spent some more time on King Lear and Mark 7. Besides that, I started on Wilkins' Tooth, by Diana Wynne Jones (one of my favorite authors). It is fun. My mom is actually reading it out loud to my nephews, and we were all laughing out loud as she read. I do love reading Jones. (I've got my dad started on the Chrestomanci series now.

I am continuing with Mostly Harmless in my own time now, and am enjoying it (of course). I've set aside the book by Ken Follet for the moment. I am going to wait till all of my out of town guests have gone back to start on it again. It is the kind I might like taking on a long flight with me or something.

mood: lazy tags: books, diana wynne jones, douglas adams, ken follet, mostly harmless, reading, wilkins tooth

I didn't have a whole lot of time for my own reading yesterday, but last night at home my youngest nephew asked me to start reading Bible stories to him and his brother. They requested all of their favorites, so we ended up reading Daniel in the lion's den, David and Goliath, Samson, Jesus healing 10 lepers, Zacchaeus, and then all of Mark 1. We'll continue reading through the Gospel of Mark now.

I did read through 1 Timothy 4-5 yesterday too. But I had a lot more conversation and socializing than reading yesterday.

mood: calm tags: bible stories, reading

Today, I mostly got a little light reading done. I read from 2 Kings, from Proverbs, and from 1 Timothy in preparation for lessons. And, I read King Lear through once (again) preparing for a lecture coming up at the end of the month.

I am starting on Ken Follett's The Man From St. Petersburg today too. It was recommended to me by another blogger. (In fact, he's loaned me his copy.) I haven't read enough of it to know if I will like it, but it will be good to give it a look. I've not read Follett before.

mood: exhausted tags: books, ken follett, reading, the man from st. petersburg