Month: January 2010

  • Favorite Quotes from 2009


    One need never be dull as long as one has
    friends to help,
    gardens to enjoy and
    books in the long winter evenngs.
    ~ D.E. Stevenson

     

    For lack of attention,
    a thousand forms of loveliness
    elude us everyday.
    ~ Evelyn Underhill

    ...taking things with gratitude
    and not for granted
    G.K. Chesterton

    The fifth cup of tea between friends is the best.
    ~ Chinese proverb

    If I have seen further,
    it is by standing on the shoulders of giants.
    ~ Sir Isaac Newton

    I am content to be and have what in Thy heart
    I am meant to be and have.
    ~ George MacDonald

    I learned, though, that fear would recede more quickly
    if I immersed myself in routine chores.
    Cooking soup and folding cool linen can be great healers.
    ~ Gerda Weissmann Klein

    Nothing seems particularly grim
    if your head is clear
    and your teeth are clean
    and your bowels function properly.
    ~ M.F.K. Fisher

    Interrupting is the verbal equivalent to shoving.
    ~ Margaret Shepherd

    Meeting people isn't a skill, Matt, so much as just good manners.
    ~ Garrison Keillor

    God gave the Americans watches.
    He gave the Africans time.
    ~ John Patrick, MD

    After a full belly, all is poetry.
    ~ Frank McCourt

    His face twists, but he holds back the tears,
    determined not to commit the sin of despair.
    ~ Mary Doria Russell

    I don't want to get to the end of my life
    and find that I just lived the length of it.
    I want to have lived the width of it as well.
    ~Diane Ackerman

    It's moronic, guys using science and computers to prove
    the existence of God, like we're doing him some favor,
    like he's one of Saturn's suns or some supernova or something.
    [expletive] Computers are the coolest thing in the world,
    but they've got their limits. So this is it, here's my creed:
    I believe what believers have believed for the last four
    thousand years: that there is one God who made the
    world and who judges what we do in it.
    ~ Fernanda Eberstadt

    A good wife will smooth many imperfections.
    ~ Anthony Trollope

    This is the fun of serving.
    If you have never surprised anyone
    in the midst of ordinary daily life,
    you've missed a lot of the satisfaction
    that can be spread through days.
    ~ Edith Schaeffer

    Binge eaters don't appreciate an audience.
    ~ Jami Bernard

    Live strictly within your income
    and save something for a rainy day.
    Incorporate within your lives the discipline of budgeting.
    ~ L. Tom Perry

    If you read one book a week, starting at age five,
    and live to be 80,
    you will have read a grand total of 3,900 books.
    ~ Lewis Buzbee

    Quotes are free -- truth is rich.
    ~ Laurie Hagberg

  • The Year in Books

     

    Because I love to read reading lists, here is my offering of books read in 2009. 
    Titles with Ω next to them indicate audio books.

    It was a good reading year; there were many painful stories relative to WWII, but the comfortable books in-between helped.  Many of you influenced my reading with your own book reviews and recommendations.  Thank you!  I am grateful for the book-loving blogging community.

    Loved

    ■   Rachel Ray, Anthony Trollope (written in 1863, my favorite of 2009)
    ■   The Herb of Grace, Elizabeth Goudge (comfort and joy)
    ■   Cold Sassy Tree, Olive Ann Burns (quirky, colorful, lovable, Southern)

    ■   Band of Brothers, Stephen E. Ambrose (grand and gripping)
    ■   D-Day, June 6, 1944, Stephen E. Ambrose (I couldn't put it down)
    ■   Beyond Band of Brothers, Dick Winters  Ω (I totally admire this man)

    ■   My Lucky Star, Zdenka Fantlova (absorbing, haunting)
    ■   The Book Thief, Markus Zusak Ω  (most unusual - a must re-read)
    ■   The Pianist, Wladyslaw Szpilman (Holocaust memoir, Poland)

    ■  All but My Life, Gerda Weissman Klein (left me in an emotional puddle)
    ■  The Proud Tower, Barbara Tuchman Ω (1895-1912 could be compelling? Yes!)
    ■   How to Cook a Wolf, M.F.K. Fisher (written for the starving; acerbic wit)

    ■   Simple Courage, Frank Delaney Ω (I yearn to write this well, audio excellent)
    ■   A Thread of Grace, Mary Doria Russell (Jewish resistance in Italy during WWII)
    ■   String Too Short to Be Saved, Donald Hall (life on a Maine farm, rec. by Wendell Berry)

    Really Liked

    ■   Suite Française, Irène Némirovsky Ω (captures the horror of invasion)
    ■   Garlic and Sapphires, Ruth Reichl (mischievous, sparkling, crackin' good fun)
    ■   Schindler's List, Thomas Keneally (he saved > 1000 Jewish lives in WWII)

    ■   Good Night, Mr. Tom, Michelle Magorian (sweet story without syrup)
    ■   The Last Chronicle of Barset, Anthony Trollope Ω (good but not Trollope's best)
    ■   A Gravestone Made of Wheat, Will Weaver (basis of movie Sweet Land)

    ■   Children of the Storm, Natasha Vins (modern Soviet memoir)
    ■   The Second World War in Color, Stewart Binns  (great photography)
    ■   Dr. Seuss Goes to War, Theodor Geisel (a different side of Dr. Seuss)

    ■   The Rising Tide, Jeff Shaara Ω (brings history alive)
    ■   The Steel Wave, Jeff Shaara Ω (D-Day was a particular focus in my reading)
    ■   The Hours After, Gerda Weismann Klein and Kurt Klein (sequel to ABML)

    ■   All God's Children & Blue Suede Shoes, Kenneth Myers (culture & faith)
    ■   Walter, The Story of a Rat, Barbara Wersba (the rat loves books)
    ■   Island on Bird Street, Uri Olev (young adult book based on author's life)

    ■   The Art of Civilized Conversation, Margaret Shepherd (full of delightful quotes)
    ■   The Holy Wild, March Buchanan (quality writing not usually found in devotionals)
    ■   Easy Company Soldier, Don Marlarkey Ω (another Band of Brothers soldier)

    ■   The Phoenix and the Carpet, E. Nesbit (warmth of Narnia without the allegory)
    ■   Tea Time for the Traditionally Built, Alexander McCall Smith (an easy, enjoyable read)
    ■   A Nice Cup of Tea & A Sit Down, Nicey and Wifey (from a blog on tea and biscuits)

    ■   The Book That Changed My Life, ed. Diane Osen (authors interviewed)
    ■   The Incredible Shrinking Critic, Jami Bernard (NYC-style wit and sarcasm)
    ■   The Yellow-Lighted Bookshop, Lewis Buzbee (adventures of a book seller)

    Liked Parts of It

    ■   Living in a Foreign Language, Michael Tucker (TV stars move to Italy)
    ■   Head Over Heels in the Dales, Gervase Phinn (James Herriot of schools)
    ■   The Water is Wide, Pat Conroy (a young teacher, a South Carolina island)

    ■   The Invisible Heart, Russell Roberts (economics for dummies)
    ■   1916, Morgan Llywelyn (historical fiction, Easter Rising in Ireland)
    ■   Fire in the Blood, Irène Némirovsky Ω (a bit strange)

    ■   Bedside Manners, David Watt MD  (some weird patients/maladies)
    ■   The Gathering Storm, Winston Churchill ("see? I told you so!")
    ■   The Airman's War, WWII in the Sky, Albert Marrin (juvenile history)

    ■   Overlord, D-Day, Albert Marrin (another good juvenile history)
    ■   Churchill, Hitler & the Unnecessary War, Pat Buchanan Ω(didn't buy premise)
    ■   The Penderwicks, Jeanne Birdsall (not up to Nesbit, Alcott, & Lewis)

    ■   The Ocean of Truth, Sir Isaac Newton, Joyce McPherson (juvenile history)
    ■   Isaac Newton, Scientific Genius, Pearl & Henry Schultz (another juvenile history)
    ■   The Wild Blue, Stephen E. Ambrose (pilots of the B-24)

    ■   Luther and His Katie, Dolina MacCuish (juvenile history)
    ■   Women of the Old Testament, Abraham Kuyper (devotional)
    ■   The Illumined Heart, Frederica Mathewes-Green (Orthodox author, devotional)

    ■   Luncheon of the Boating Party, Susan Vreeland Ω (book based on Renoir's painting)
    ■   The Panama Hat Trail, Tom Miller (made in Ecuador; compelling non-fiction)
    ■   A Year Down Yonder, Richard Peck (juvenile fiction, the cover drew me in)

    ■   Evasions, Melanie Jeschke (preferred author's other books)
    ■   The Spiritual Life, Evelyn Underhill (a deep book, I didn't "get it")
    ■   Isaac and His Devils, Fernanda Eberstadt (parts I loved, parts I hated)

    ■   Common Sense Christian Living, Edith Schaeffer (a spin-off of film series)
    ■   The Uncommon Reader, Alan Bennett (excellent sections, except for the gay bits...why?)
    ■   Vanishing Acts, Jodi Picoult (a page-turner)
    ■   Winterdance: The Fine Madness of Running the Iditarod, Gary Paulsen (intense)

    Didn't Care For It

    ■   Mein Kampf, Adolf Hitler (How bad was it?  Very bad.)
    ■   Eating My Words, Mimi Sheraton (her voice grated--and it wasn't an audio book!)
    ■   The American Classics, Denis Donoghue (I don't like literary criticism; I prefer literature)
    ■   Speaking of Beauty, Denis Donoghue (it was a struggle to make it to the end)