Nightstand (March 2011)

The oddest part of my new library routine is the experience of finding myself “booked out” by the end of my library visit.

The children’s picture books are easy–just grab the next 50. The rest, not so easy. I select my five fiction, my five nonfiction, my three juvenile nonfiction, my three juvenile fiction. I’ve followed all my rules in selecting–2 Christian fiction, 2 secular fiction, 1 literary fiction, 1 biography, 1 craft book, 1 theology/Christian living, etc…

And then I get to my nine “my picks”. And find myself getting “booked out.”

By the last couple, I’m forcing myself to keep looking, even though I’m feeling like book overload.

The nice thing, however, is that I haven’t yet gotten “booked out” in the six weeks between trips to the library. My new system seems to be giving me just the right mix of fiction and nonfiction, stretching and fluff, structure and freedom to keep me engaged for the full six weeks.

Viva la system!

This month, I made it through:

Across the River and Into the Trees by Ernest Hemingway
It took me twelve weeks of slogging to figure out that I was never going to figure out the pull of Hemingway’s A Farewell to Arms. Now, having demolished Across the River and Into the Trees I’m stuck trying to figure out why I absolutely love some Hemingway–and absolutely hate others. This particular piece, about an old colonel and his young Italian lover, kept my nose sandwiched in a book even when the weather outside was lovely (and should have been pulling out there.) Maybe because this one mentioned World War II? But I don’t think that was it. Or maybe it’s the “old man” aspect–I certainly liked Old Man and the Sea. Or perhaps it was the love story–like the reason I enjoyed For Whom the Bell Tolls. I’m not sure. But this one was a good one in my book (although it does have a fair bit of Hemingway’s own unique brand of er.otica, caveat emptor.)

The Amusement Park Mystery created by Gertrude Chandler Warner
My opinion of the “created by” books remains unchanged.

The Confessions by St. Augustine
Good book. Difficult to get through. Definitely God-honoring. Definitely though-provoking. A few of my thoughts can be found here (The Blessed Life), here (A Poor Counterfeit), and here (The Bridge across the Chasm)

Earth to Betsy by Beth Pattillo
The sequel to Heavens to Betsy (which I most decidedly did NOT like), this book is more of the same. If you want to read a story about a female pastor who seems to never think of God except to make puns using liturgical terms, this is the book for you. I only read it because I’m reading every book in my library (and eager to close this author out before she writes another book about Betsy Blessing.)

The Factastic Book of 1001 Lists by Russell Ash
Another Dorling-Kindersley book that I enjoy WAY too much. Facts on everything from art to science to food to geography to… you name it. This one wasn’t as evolution-focused as Ask Me Anything–so I’m inclined to recommend this one as a great general trivia book.

The Guernsey Literary and Sweet Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Shaffer
It’s been on my TBR list forever, because it seemed like a while back the whole blog-o-sphere was raving about it. Unfortunately, I never took down the links to the many reviews that convinced me to read this book. I say this with true regret because I am truly thankful for having read this book. A novel written entirely in letters, this is a sweet story of how a youngish female writer from London meets a group of people who had survived the Nazi occupation of Guernsey (island). She first meets them via a letter from a man who had purchased a book secondhand–a book that used to belong to her. By the end of the novel, her whole life is taken up in that of the Guernsey Literary and Sweet Potato Peel Pie Society. This was a marvelous book.

The Liturgical Year by Joan Chittister and Phyllis Tickle
I realized after writing my review that I’d promised Thomas Nelson I’d read the entire book. I forced myself to do so. My opinion is the same. I didn’t really like this book. At all. Click the link to find out why.

Norah’s Ark by Judy Baer
Christian chick-lit, borrowed from my little sister, who borrowed it from the library. Amusing, but I begin to tire of the woman-being-chased-by-three-men plot–and the “waiting for bells” line too. (I fear I am becoming a bitter single, Lord help me!)

Paris Encore and Dunkirk Crescendo by Bodie Thoene
Yes, I know, you’ve already heard me rave about these books a bazillion times. But I wrote a little piece about this series–or about what this series has done for me. I called the piece In Praise of Historical Fiction

The Shallows by Nicholas Carr
Like every book blogger out there, I loved this book. But since every book blogger out there (or at least Lisa of Lisa Notes, Janet of Across the Page, and Tim Challies of Challies.com-who made it one of his top books of 2010) has already reviewed it, I won’t be reviewing it here. I did, however, write a few reflections on what I read: “Outsourcing Humanity”.

The Nazis by William W. Lace
The Rise of the Nazis by Charles Freeman
Hitler Youth by Susan Campbell Bartoletti
I’m on a World War II kick, surprise, surprise–see above under Paris Encore–and I wrote up a joint review of all three of these juvenile history books.

Winston Churchill by John Keegan
At 192 pages, this was a nice, quick, easy-to-read intro to Churchill’s life. It’s whetted my appetite for more–I imagine I could spend the rest of my life reading about this man and still not exhaust what there is to know about him. He seems a very…LARGE man.

Children’s Picture Books author name BASE-BAUER

• Books by Graeme Base: Picture books with riddles hidden in every layout. In one book, readers are encouraged to find a dozen animals hidden in each layout. In another, there’s a who-dun-it crime that readers can solve by decoding a variety of simple ciphers found in the borders of each layout. It takes a while to read these because you spend so much time on each page–but they’re pretty neat. These are for slightly older readers. Probably third or fourth grade?
• Books by Teresa Bateman: Whimsical Irish folktales starring leprechauns, lyrists, and liars or hilarious little farm tales hosting silly children and equally silly animals. I enjoyed reading these books quite a deal.
• The Princess and The White Bear King by Tanya Robyn Batt: A retelling of the ancient Norse fairy tales “East of the Sun, West of the Moon”, “The Black Bull of Norway”, and “The White Bear King.” I was delighted with this story and its illustrations–and when I got to the end of the book, I found that it was published by none other than Barefoot Books (a publisher Carrie raves about, but who I hadn’t encountered until this book.) Perhaps Carrie’s right–I’m definitely impressed with my first taste of Barefoot Books.
• Papa’s Mark by Gwendolyn Battle-Lavert: I enjoyed this story about an African American man who learned to write his name so that he could write his own name when he voted (just after the Civil War.)

‘Twas a good reading month–and now my library crates stand empty, ready to be refilled with books to be returned once I’m done reading them. This six-week’s haul is pretty exciting–I can’t wait to dig into them!

Don’t forget to drop by 5 Minutes 4 Books to see what others are reading this month!