Staff photographer goes public

Kate at Under the Sky knows how to make a young man's day. Her new banner is courtesy of my staff photographer's growing portfolio. Big smiles behind that camera lens today.

The Grand Mitford Finale

Light from Heaven by Jan Karon.

From Amazon.com reviews:

"All good things—even laughter and orange marmalade cake—must come to an end.

And in Light from Heaven, the long-anticipated final volume in the phenomenally successful Mitford Years series, Karon deftly ties up all the loose ends of Father Timothy Kavanagh’s deeply affecting life."

About the Author: Jan Karon writes "to give readers an extended family and to applaud the extraordinary beauty of ordinary lives."

Mitford has been a pleasure. I am going to wait for awhile to read this final volume, but I am confident it will be worth the wait.

Thanks to Staci at Writing and Living for the reminder that Mitford is on the "New Arrivals" shelves again.

Not a project for my future

Knitted Digestive System (with thanks to Patty in WA)

A little red hat


With my favorite (local) knitting support staff here for a slumber party (my older daughter and her two dear friends), we took a trip to Lofty Lou's, the quaint little yarn spot downtown. Two of the girls are making baby socks, but I worked my way through the simple instructions for this hat from Plymouth Yarn Company. I am so happy! I was ready to move on to something besides washcloths.

Autumn

Winslow Homer (1836 - 1910)

Saco Bay, 1896

"The sun will not rise or set without my notice, and thanks," Winslow Homer, 1895

Best known for his paintings of the sea, did you know that Winslow Homer also did paintings of the American Civil War? From the Joselyn Art Museum (Omaha, Nebraska) site:

"Acknowledged today as one of the world's greatest watercolorists, Winslow Homer grew up in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and was apprenticed in his teens to a lithographer in Boston. In 1855 he moved to New York City and attended the National Academy of Design. During this period he made his living as an illustrator for various magazines, chiefly Harper's Weekly, for whom he served as a pictorial correspondent during the Civil War, participating in several Union campaigns. At about this same time, Homer began painting in oils. His Prisoners from the Front, completed in 1866, and the only large-scale oil he produced based on his wartime experiences, won him immediate acclaim when it was shown at the Exposition Universelle in Paris.

Homer achieved success as an illustrator through his ability to draw quickly and accurately. His sense of the dramatic and direct narrative style carried over into his later paintings. In the 1880s he turned to marine subjects and eventually settled in Maine, where he spent most of the remainder of his life."

For an introduction to Winslow Homer, we have enjoyed:



Winslow Homer by Mike Venezia (from the Getting to Know the World's Greatest Artists series.)

One of our favorite art (painting) history resources is:



Sister Wendy's Story of Painting by Sister Wendy Beckett

We also have this book:



Winslow Homer Paintings : 24 Cards.

I took the twenty-four cards from the book and handed them to each of my children. Their job was to choose their favorite, and these were the winners:



Early Morning After a Storm at Sea, 1902


Girl with Laurel, 1879


The Fog Warning, 1885


The Artist Studio in an Afternoon Fog, 1894


Morning Glories, 1873

My favorite is the picture at the top of the post.

I love how realistic the ocean is in Homer's paintings. You can almost smell the salt in the air or feel the spray of the waves on your cheek. But, not quite. Sometimes a foothill-dwelling woman has to hoof it across valley and mountains to see, feel, and smell the ocean for herself. One of these days I am going to wake everyone before the sun rises, pop them in the van with cocoa and coffee and muffins, and head to the coast. When your heart's home is the sea, you can't be land-locked for too long before the soul withers a bit.

Pirate Instruction Manual

The Great Pirate Activity Book by Deri Robins

Sometimes a book sits on the shelf and I begin to wonder, "Should this be thrown into the library book sale pile?" Then, for some unknown reason, it becomes The Book of Choice for days on end. The Great Pirate Activity Guide was in the consideration process for the next clearing out of the shelves, but its life has been spared in a most enthusiastic way. The front porch has been a pirate ship, eye patches and hats and hooks have been made, and there is even a sail hoisted on the tether ball pole. We're talking serious pirate activities.

The front porch looks out over the same view that I often photograph for A Circle of Quiet. This morning, a rare patch of fog is filling the valley surrounding us, and if you squint your eyes just a little bit, you can imagine the quiet seas behind the grey soup.


Pirates!

The Pearcey Report

Thanks to Mere Comments, I learned of a new website worth visiting regularly: The Pearcey Report. News, commentary, articles, lists of columnists, art museums, and more.

From Mere Comments:

About Rick and Nancy Pearcey:

J. Richard Pearcey is editor and publisher of the report. Rick has worked as a journalist, writer, and editor in the Washington, D.C., area since the late 1980s.

Best-selling author Nancy Pearcey is editor-at-large. Her most recent book is TOTAL TRUTH: Liberating Christianity from Its Cultural Captivity. She is also the Francis A. Schaeffer Scholar at the World Journalism Institute.

About the site content:

The information component (of the Pearcey Report) opens the door to the wider world of U.S. and international media -- and to a life beyond the crisis of the moment. Thus, in addition to websites for columnists, think tanks, and activist groups, also available are resources for further study, travel, world cities, and more.

From The Pearcey Report Welcome Statement:

"Our idea of a good time includes the arts, controversies in science, palpatations in politics, plus a timely and strategic look at the news, events, people, and trends of this moment in history. So there is a serious component to what we do in this pages.

And yet, nothing written here shall be deemed more important than how each one of us live and work day in and day out -- How we raise our kids, the choices we make, the culture we create, the assumptions we think through, the behavior we affirm or let slide. A disconnect in areas such as these has been known to turn fairly normal people into seedbeds of opportunism for PR sharpshooters, image magicians, money-grubbers, and influence-mongers of all stripes of religion and irreligion (and ever the twain shall meet). We would just as soon see a world without that junk littering the landscape."



I am in the midst of reading Nancy Pearcey's book Total Truth. I'll write more as soon as I wiggle my thoughts into a coherent lump, but so far, I love it and find myself challenged in a good way. I do recommend it, that much I know.

Nancy Pearcey also spoke at Gutenberg College's Oktoberfuss this last weekend. We spent a foolish fifteen minutes trying to figure out if we could get there, but if you start multiplying gas prices by the number of gallons required to get to Eugene, Oregon, the answer (NO!) becomes perfectly clear. But, we would have chosen to be reckless fools if our soulmates that are moving to Salem, Oregon had already settled in. Nancy Pearcey + Dear Friends at Gutenberg and in Salem + the fresh Oregon air? We could have stolen some grocery money for the journey. Maybe next year we'll join in the fuss.

Farewell, Bill King

The smell of the grass. The sound of a ball meeting the bat. The leather of the mitt. Listening to Bill King call an A's game was almost as good as being there. My husband and his brothers grew up on Bill King, I learned to love the game with his help, and my boys have already logged oodles of hours in their little upstairs bedroom, transported to a ball field where the A's were hard at work. This last Tuesday, Bill King died, and his voice was silenced. We will miss him.

An article about King at Inside Bay Area

What The Readers are Reading: Part the Third

Here's Part the Third of what you are reading. This list has some of my favorites: home education materials by Charlotte Mason, Jesse Wise and Susan Bauer; The Handbook of Nature Study, a well-used nature resource in our house; Howard Pyle, L.M. Montgomery, E. Nesbit, Mortimer Adler, Edith Schaeffer, and Tolkien, too. You have fine taste, my dear readers.

Enjoy! May you find some old friends and make some new ones. There are so many interesting things to learn, aren't there?

Part the Fourth will come when my linking fingers are ready for some more exercise.

Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy

Anne of Avonlea by L.M. Montgomery

Before the Change: Taking Charge of Your Peri-menopause by Ann Louise Gittleman

Bell Prater’s Boy by Ruth White

The Bronze Bow by Elizabeth George Speare

Don Quixote by Cervantes

Don Quixote (Oxford Illustrated Classics series) retold by Michael Harrison

Formation of Character, Home Education, Ourselves, Parents and Children, and A Philosophy of Education -- all a part of the Original Homeschooling Series by Charlotte Mason

Freddy the Politician by Walter R. Brooks

Galileo: Astronomer and Physicist by Robin Doak

Galileo Galilei and the Science of Motion by William Boerst, Jr.

Girls Who Looked Under Rocks: The Lives of Six Pioneering Naturalists by Jeannine Atkins

God King by Joanne Williamson

The Golden Goblet by Eloise Jarvis McGraw

Handbook of Nature Study by Anna Botsford Comstock

Happy Hollisters and the Sea Turtle Mystery by Jerry West

The Heroes: or, Greek fairy tales for my children by Charles Kingsley

The History of the English Speaking Peoples by Winston Churchill

How To Read a Book by Mortimer Adler

How to Read Slowly by James Sire

The Hunchback of Notre Dame adaptation by Marc Cerasini

John Muir: My Life with Nature by Joseph Cornell

Knowing Scripture by R.C. Sproul

Lavender and Old Lace by Myrtle Reed

The Legend of Sleepy Hollow and Other Stories by Washington Irving

Leonard da Vinci by Barbara Witteman

Leonardo, Beautiful Dreamer by Robert Byrd

Lies My Teacher Told Me by James Lowen

A Lion to Guard Us by Clyde Robert Bulla

Ludwig van Beethoven: Musical Pioneer by Carol Greene

Magic City by E. Nesbit

Men of Iron by Howard Pyle

Minn of the Mississippi by Holling Clancy Hollling

Mythology by Edith Hamilton

Now We Are Six by A.A. Milne

The Ocean of Truth: The Story of Isaac Newton by Joyce McPherson

Order from Chaos by Liz Davenport

The Ordinary People’s Guide to Teaching Reading by Jesse Wise and Sara Buffington

Pagoo
by Holling Clancy Holling

Phonics Pathways: Clear Steps to Easy Reading and Perfect Spelling by Dolores Hiskes

Pocahontas and the Strangers by Clyde Robert Bulla

The Princess and the Goblin by George MacDonald

The Reformation
by Diarmaid MacCullough

Rhetoric and Poetics by Aristotle

Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe

Sailing Alone Around the World by Joshua Slocum

Science Lab in a Supermarket by Robert Friedhoffer

Sinus Survival by Robert Ivker

The Story of Inventions by Michael McHugh

The Story of Mankind by Hendrik Van Loon

Swallows and Amazons by Arthur Ransome

Tales from Shakespeare by Charles Lamb

The Timetables of History by Bernard Grun

Tools of Dominion by Gary North

Two Towers by J.R.R.Tolkien

The Voyage of Magellan by Richard Humble

The Water Babies by Charles Kingsley

A Way of Seeing by Edith Schaeffer

The Well-Educated Mind by Susan Wise Bauer

The Well-Trained Mind by Susan Wise Bauer

Where the Broken Heart Still Beats by Carolyn Meyer

Wives of Henry VIII by Antonia Fraser

The Yesterdays by Harold Bell Wright

Yesterday

I can't seem to get her out of my mind. Yesterday, while we were waiting for Mom's doctor's appointment, a woman entered the waiting area from the exam room side of the building. She walked as if in a fog, not seeing any of us, hearing only some nightmare in her mind. She wasn't crying, but her face showed great sadness and shock. She finally found a seat, held on to the arm of the chair to lower herself safely, and stared at the wall. Maybe sixty years of age, she clutched her cell phone anxiously, as if afraid that it would ring and maybe afraid that it might not. I was overcome with a wave of helplessness. She was a total stranger; her grief was fully unknown to me. All I knew was that she was a struggling person, and I longed to relieve her suffering, even if just a little. I wanted to offer her privacy for her grieving, or the hand of a friend to hold, and I could do neither.

I eventually abandoned all thought of reading; I couldn't even see the words. So, I just sat and prayed. Nothing that will grace the pages of Best Prayers of 2005, that is for sure. My prayers were more of the primal groan type that are spoken of in the scriptures. ("And in the same way the Spirit also helps our weakness; for we do not know how to pray as we should, but the Spirit Himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words." Romans 8:26)

Just before the nurse called us back to get our results, the woman across the way looked over at me. She saw my mother sitting next to me, she heard my mother's name called, and she saw what must have been an anxious look on my face. She gave me the most lovely smile, and it touched me deeply. Amidst whatever nightmare was unfolding in her life, she took the time to gift me with a warm and caring smile. It fills my eyes with tears even now; I can only hope that the smile I gave in return touched her heart as deeply.

I am praying for that unknown woman today. May God give her the grace for whatever her future holds.

Against Eternal Youth

"Boyhood, like measles, is one of those complaints which a man should catch young and have done with, for when it comes in middle life it is apt to be serious." - PG Wodehouse

This quote, sent to me by Kate from Under the Sky, reminded me of an article in First Things, August/September 2005: Against Eternal Youth by Frederica Mathewes-Green.

A few quotes:

"Think for a moment of that 1946 Christmastime favorite, It’s a Wonderful Life. The message here is the exact opposite. George Bailey has dreams of being an explorer and traveling the world, but he keeps nobly setting these aside in order to care for his family. Nobody would make this movie today. In today’s version, George Bailey would have a screaming fight with his father, storm out of the house, hop on a steamer, circle the world, have dangerous and exciting adventures, and return home to a big celebration. His dad would then tell him, with tears in his eyes, 'You were right all along, son.'”

"The Boomers as parents managed to go their own parents one better, extending the golden playroom all the way through graduate school. But the emphasis on unlimited possibilities turns out to be a new kind of prison. Many twenty-somethings find themselves immobilized by too much praise. They dare not commit to any one career, because it means giving up others, and they’ve never before had to close off any options. They dare not commit to a single career because they’re expected to excel at it, and they’re afraid they may only be ordinary. A lifetime of go-get-’em cheering presumes that one day you’ll march out and take the world by storm. But what if the world doesn’t notice? What if the field is too crowded, or the skills too difficult, or the child just not all that talented? It’s a sad but unalterable fact that most people are average."

You can find the complete article here.

Mum and her grandgirls

Finally...

On September 26th I wrote about the fact that my mother was going in for some testing to figure out why she was anemic. It's "only" been twenty-two days since then, but we did go in today for our follow-up appointment. She doesn't have cancer, she needs a weekly shot to increase her red blood cell count, and we are overcome with relief. Thanks to many of you for asking, and for praying. Having spent a bit of time in this hemotology and oncology office, I realize that a whole bunch of people don't get good news when they walk in those doors. For today, we stop and give thanks for the good news.

Here today...

Missing....

19.46 pounds of Fuji apples
4 gallons of milk.

Purchased last Thursday, the mother of the household found all milk and apple stores depleted Monday morning.

Suspected culprits are three young residents, currently fast asleep in their upstairs bedroom. Male in gender, they have these tell-tale signs: extra fatigue, pants suddenly too short, and deepening voices in the older two. The youngest of the three has been hungry, almost constantly, since his birth six years ago.

With an extra run to the store to refill the pantry, we are set...for now.

Despite the extra money going towards such fleeting purchases, I have no regrets. They're healthy; they're happy. They're worth it.

The Sunday afternoon walk

Neighborhood vines
(also known as A Study in Greens)

P.G. Wodehouse (1881 - 1975)

I am grateful to Sherry at Semicolon for her October 15th post, celebrating P.G. Wodehouse's birthday. This will become a family celebration day next year, Wodehouse enthusiasts that we are. Tomorrow, as a belated party, we will read a favorite story as we eat lunch (perhaps from Right Ho, Jeeves or Jeeves in the Offing) and choose a few favorite quotes from our movie binges in the past .

I hope to get this biography from the library soon:


Wodehouse: A Life by Robert McCrum

Happy belated birthday, old bean!

Listening to Your Life

"A man's life is full of all sorts of voices calling him in all sorts of directions. Some of them are voices from inside and some of them are voices from outside. The more alive and alert we are, the more clamorous our lives are. Which do we listen to? What kind of voice do we listen for?"

Listening to Your Life: Daily Meditations by Frederick Buechner

Van Gogh

New York Times, October 14th.
The Evolution of a Master Who Dreamed on Paper

(You may need to register to get this article. Go ahead, and while you are at it you can sign up to get a daily email of headlines.)

This article on Van Gogh is okay, but scroll on down and find the multi-media presentation in the left-hand column. A Draftman's Fist is a nice slideshow of Van Gogh pieces from the Met.

I sure wish I had "seized the day" when my dad lived in New York City. Just blocks from the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and I couldn't have cared less. Sigh.

What The Readers are Reading: Part the Second

Well, this post has taken awhile. Sorry about that, and thanks for your patience. I have heard from a couple of you, and that has motivated me to keep working on it. The hold up was learning how to link to my affiliate account (the kind of link that ends up compensating me when/if you purchase the book.) After a few tries, plenty of confusion, and some kind assistance, I think I have it figured out. (Thanks, MFS.) The Part the First entry has generic links; this will still get you to information about the books (the most important thing), but it does not allow you to bestow upon me your patronage (which is nice, but the not the Big Reason for doing such a list.) I'll get around to changing those links when I am finally done with listing all the interesting books you are reading. (After Part the Fourth? Fifth? We shall see.)

With no further disclaimers or advertisements, here is Part the Second of what YOU are reading:

The Bible...a good place to start

1-2-3 Magic by Thomas W. Phelan

(subtitled: Effective Discipline for Children 2-12)

Another Sort of Learning by James Schall

(subtitled: Selected Contrary Essays on How Finally to Acquire an Education While Still in College or Anywhere Else: Containing Some Belated Advice about How to Employ Your Leisure Time When Ultimate Questions Remain Perplexing in Spite of Your Highest Earned Academic Degree, Together with Sundry Book Lists Nowhere Else in Captivity to Be Found.) Sounds like a must-read!

Ball Blue Book of Preserving

The Book of Mormon (by Joseph Smith, Jr.) and My First Book of Mormon Stories (by Deana Draper Buck)

Charms for an Easy Life by Kaye Gibbons

Church History In Plain Language by Bruce L. Shelley

The Hollywood Murders by Ellery Queen

Keeping the Heart by John Flavel

Knowing And Teaching Elementary Mathematics by Liping Ma

(subtitled: Teachers' Understanding of Fundamental Mathematics in China and the United States (Studies in Mathematical Thinking and Learning.))

The Lady and Sons, Too! : A Whole New Batch of Recipes from Savannah by Paula Deen

The Last Voyage of Columbus : by Martin Dugard

(subtitled: Being the Epic Tale of the Great Captain's Fourth Expedition, Including Accounts of Swordfight, Mutiny, Shipwreck, Gold, War, Hurricane, and Discovery)

The Many Lives and Secret Sorrows of Josephine B. by Sandra Gulland

Rare Jewel of Christian Contentment by Jeremiah Burroughs

Sink Reflections: by Marla Cilley

(subtitled: Overwhelmed? Disorganized? Living in Chaos? The FlyLady's Simple FLYing Lessons Will Show You How to Get Your Home and Your Life in Order--and It All Starts with Shining Your Sink!)

There Are No Shortcuts by Rafe Esquith

Total Truth: Liberating Christianity from Its Cultural Captivity by Nancy Pearcey

The Works of Josephus: Complete and Unabridged, New Updated Edition by Flavius Josephus, William Whiston (Translator)


Periodicals

First Things

Golf

National Geographic for Kids

Time for Kids

Touchstone: A Journal of Mere Christianity

Woman's Day


Children's

The Amazing Mr. Franklin: Or the Boy Who Read Everything by Ruth Ashby

American Tall Tales, by Adrien Stoutenburg

Applying Algebra
(Applied Math Series) by John L. McCabe

At The Back of the North Wind by George MacDonald

B. Franklin, Printer by David A. Adler

Bard of Avon : The Story of William Shakespeare by Diane Stanley

Beethoven: 1770-1827 (Great Composers) by Jeroen Koolbergen

Benjamin Franklin : A Photo-Biography by John Riley

Benjamin Franklin : A Photo-Illustrated Biography by T. M. Usel

Benjamin Franklin, Founding Father and Inventor by Leila Merrell Foster

Benjamin Franklin: Writer, Inventor, Statesman by Pamela Hill Nettleton

A Child's History of the World by V.M. Hillyer

Ferdinand Magellan by Claude Hurwicz

Fizz, Bubble & Flash! : Element Explorations and Atom Adventures for Hands-On Science Fun! by Anita J. Brandolini, Ph.D.

Judy Moody by Megan McDonald

Season of the Sandstorms (Magic Tree House #34) by Mary Pope Osborne

The Lion, Witch and the Wardrobe by C.S. Lewis

Baby Sitter's Little Sister series by Ann Martin

Staff photographer's early results

Saturday morning sky


Camp Winton sunset


Cool, unidentifiable object at night

I am very pleased with my new staff photographer's contributions. It's a great thing to get the right gift for the right moment in a young person's life. The camera is obviously a big winner.

Should we continue to look upwards?

"Should we continue to look upwards? Is the light we can see in the sky one of those which will presently be extinguished? The ideal is terrifying to behold, lost as it is in the depths, small, isolated, a pin-point, brilliant but threatened on all sides by the dark forces that surround it; nevertheless, no more in danger than a star in the jaws of the clouds."

Victor Hugo (Les Miserables)

A note about Wodehouse

I received a note from Ms. Hornblower who blogs at HMS Indefatigable:

"I adore PG Woodhouse (all except the golf stories; I don't understand those at all) Stephen Fry writes in an introduction to a new edition of Jeeves & Wooster:

'He taught me something about good nature. It IS enough to be benign, to be gentle, to be funny, to be kind.'

I love that quote."

I love it, too, Hornblower, and agree about the golf stories.

What the Readers are Reading: Part the First

I have greatly enjoyed hearing from so many of you; thank you for taking the time to take note of your current pile of books. There are several that look like excellent choices for my next stack, and many I have not even heard of. This is, as the title says, only Part I of this post. I have only gotten through five or six people's lists; my guess is it will take at least three more posts to get through them all. If you don't see your book recommendations, just wait a few days. They'll be there.

Note to John and Nina: if "all" you are doing is grading papers, reading the books that you teach, and thinking about the literature, poetry, history or other subjects that you love, you count, too. I know; it's hard to find an amazon link for "piles of papers" and "thinking about what to teach", but you have my undying respect!

So, here is the first list:

30 Colorful Quilt and Patchwork Projects by Denyse Schmidt. From Cheeky Mama at I Have to Say : This is not so much a reading book as a project book. The projects are a "modern spin on classic quilts". I am hoping to find some fun things to make for Christmas gifts.

1776 by David McCullough

Barbarian Way: Unleash the Untamed Faith Within by Erwin Raphael McManus

A Better Way: Recovering the Drama of Christ-Centered Worship by Michael Horton

The Big Over Easy by Jasper Fforde. From Mindy at New Song: I love his writing! He is so clever and funny. He makes great use of the English language and this new book doesn't disappoint!!

Building a Contagious Church by Mark Mittelberg

Effective Teaching with Technology in Higher Education : Foundations for Success by A. W. Bates

The Counterpane Fairy by Katharine Pyle

The Everything Home-Based Business Book by Jack Savage

The Exemplary Husband by John MacArthur

Favorite Poems of Emily Dickinson

Guns, Germs and Steel by Jared Diamond

Harry Potter Y El Prisionero De Azkaban by J.K. Rowling

Heaven by Randy Alcorn (re-reading)

The Horse and His Boy by C.S. Lewis

Instruments in The Redeemer's Hands: People in Need of Change Helping People in Need of Change by Paul Tripp

Ireland: A Novel by Frank Delaney

The Justice by Angela Hunt

Lord of the Rings (again) by Tolkien (of course!)

The Lost World by Michael Crichton

Mere Christianity by C. S. Lewis

Mrs. Dalloway by Virginia Woolf

My Wars Are Laid Away in Books: The Life of Emily Dickinson by Alfred Habegger. From Cheeky Mama at I Have to Say : I have always wanted to learn about poetry-about Ms.Dickinson's works in particular-but I have never taken the plunge. Honestly, it scares me a bit because it seems overwhelming. But here I go!

Notes From a Small Island by Bill Bryson

This Organic Life: Confessions of a Suburban Homesteader by Joan Dye Gussow

Peace Like a River by Leif Enger

The Pilgrim's Progress by John Bunyan

Seizing Your Divine Moment : Dare to Live a Life of Adventure by Erwin Raphael McManus

Standing in the Rainbow by Fannie Flaggs

A Thread of Grace by Mary Doria Russell

Total Forgiveness by R. T. Kendall

A Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Betty Smith

Uprising: A Revolution of the Soul by Erwin Raphael McManus

Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the Westby Gregory Maguire

Wives and Daughters by Elizabeth Gaskell

World War II: The Axis Assault, 1939-1942 edited by Douglas Brinkley

A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L'Engle

Specifically noted as being read by children:

The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

Anne of Green Gables by Lucy Maude Montgomery

Emma's Journal by Marissa Moss

Half Magic by Edward Eager

Hannah of Fairfield by Jean Van Leeuwen

The Magic School Bus Explores the Senses by Joanna Cole

The Magic School Bus Inside the Human Body by Joanna Cole

The Mystery at Lilac Inn by Carolyn Keene

Queen Elizabeth and The Spanish Armada by Frances Winwar

The Saturdays by Elizabeth Enright

Sword of the Samurai : Adventure Stories from Japan by Eric A. Kimmel

*A strange note. I worked on this post for a long time on Saturday. Then, somehow, I inadvertently closed it without saving it. It was gone, and so was a lot of my time. "Oh well," I thought, "it will just be that much longer until I can get those posts done." Then, for no particular reason, it APPEARED this morning -- posted.

Maybe there is a Blog Fairy. *

Late night reading

I had every intention of getting to work on my "What Everyone is Reading" post. I really did. But, other voices called to me instead. My Boy Scouts are gone, my house is finally quiet, and I received the latest edition of First Things in the mail today. Articles on Wodehouse, Darfur, the Supreme Court...I think I'll just pour myself a glass of cabernet and read with the bedside lamp blazing. I am married to a light sleeper, so I rarely get the chance to read in bed until I am ready to stop. Tonight, he is sleeping on the lumpy ground of Boy Scout camp, and I am going to read, read, read until my eyes won't read anymore. I'll get to those links soon enough.

Happy week-end.

** Added later **

From God and Bertie Wooster, First Things. October 2005:

"And something in his pages suggests "the living God, Who giveth us richly all things to enjoy."

It's a little hard to say quite what that something is. Wodehouse may be our best answer to Nietzsche, but he isn't entirely clear on how Young Men in Spats trumps Thus Spake Zarathustra. but suppose that laughter offers blessed escape for a while from the terrible mattering that possessed modern times. Suppose that Christendom - the deep unity of Western culture through the years - survives best not when it is trying to respond to the relentless thud with which secular history marches, but when it dances a little. And suppose that God's grace doesn't dwell just in the tears we shed at the tragedy of the world, but also in the play of comedy. Wodehouse titled one of his best novels Joy in the Morning, after a passage in Psalm 30 that Jeeves quotes to Bertie Wooster: "Weeping may endure for a night, but joy cometh in the morning." And it's true. Joy does come in the morning, and laughter from reading P.G. Wodehouse. That's a small grace, but a real one."

Robert Frost (1874–1963)

October

O HUSHED October morning mild,
Thy leaves have ripened to the fall;
To-morrow’s wind, if it be wild,
Should waste them all.
The crows above the forest call;
To-morrow they may form and go.
O hushed October morning mild,
Begin the hours of this day slow,
Make the day seem to us less brief.
Hearts not averse to being beguiled,
Beguile us in the way you know;
Release one leaf at break of day;
At noon release another leaf;
One from our trees, one far away;
Retard the sun with gentle mist;
Enchant the land with amethyst.
Slow, slow!
For the grapes’ sake, if they were all,
Whose leaves already are burnt with frost,
Whose clustered fruit must else be lost—
For the grapes’ sake along the wall.


for the grapes' sake...

Last call ... reading lists

You have until Thursday to let me know what you are reading. Remember: there are no right answers, and no right number of books. Just what you (your husband, your children, your roommate, your mother) are reading. I, on the other hand, will be busy writing up a contract to myself about how much money should be spent on new books in the coming season. And, outlining the virtues of checking out the library to be certain that a book requires purchasing. And, working on a Book Addict In Recovery view of our new annual budget. Your book lists are far too interesting, blog friends. But, I asked for it.

If you haven't written in yet, here's the address.

A week-end in pictures

Wine tasting


Apple sauce making


Visiting with family


Evening peace

Don't forget -- reading list request

Wow.

I've had a great response to my request for current reading lists. Remember, I won't be posting the results until next week, so there's still time if you haven't written in yet.

You can reach me: here