Catching Up

It's been a difficult month. My brother passed away at the end of March - an unsettling death after a challenging and complicated life - and though I've been reading, I haven't had the energy or the focus needed to write and post about the books. Having been through the loss of several family members you'd think I'd be used to the way the mind goes numb and leaves you trying to remember how to put one foot in front of the other, yet it still takes me by suprise.Time is suspended and everything seems to happen in slow motion. It's like wading through a substance thick and heavy, but invisible. Usually, when the arrangement-making and all the activity is finished and you're settling back into your regular daily life, time resumes its natural flow and you move on as best you can, but nothing seems normal yet. Moving on feels unnatural, unkind, and unfair, but today I'll make a small attempt at a start by writing at least a few words about each of the books I've read over the past few weeks...     

How to Read a Poem and Fall In Love with Poetry by Edward Hirsch

This wonderful book reminded me why I love poetry and introduced me to some poets with whose work I was unfamiliar. One of them is Wislawa Szymborska, a Polish poet whose plainspoken words pack an absolute punch to the gut every time I read them. I'm hoping to have a copy of her Map: Collected and Last Poems on my shelf soon. 

This book helped me learn to read more slowly and attentively to find deeper meaning in poetry and prose alike. It's a book that will stay on my desk and that I expect to return to often for reference and inspiration.  

The City Where We Once Lived by Eric Barnes

This was a re-read that I loved as much this time as I did the first time, which you can read about here. This story gets to me in a way that few do: the main character's awful, unrelenting pain, the slow climb from bleak despair to hopefullness for him and for the city, and the blessed thought that no matter how bad circumstances get, human beings can still be human and connect and care about, and for, one another. It remains one of my favourite novels. 

Miss Hargreaves by Frank Baker

Another re-read, one I didn't enjoy as much the second time. I remembered it as having a lighter tone but on this reading found it to be quite serious, even dark at times, which can probably be put down to my own frame of mind at the time. Struggling with questions of life and death is apparently not the best condition under which to appreciate wry humour and irony. In less fraught circumstances I'd have received it differently, so I think it's best to stand by my original comments, found here.

Timeline by Michael Chrichton

A sci-fi book that takes you back to the 15th century and spends - for me - too much time there. A group of scientists and tech geniuses figure out a way to use quantum physics to travel to - not another time, but another dimension in which is it now another time. Splitting hairs, maybe, but I found the concept interesting. What I found a bit tedious was their all getting trapped in that other reality and taking a long time to get back. Their time there - then? - is filled with knights, sword fighting, and many frantic attempts to avoid being caught, all of which add up to a good Middle Ages adventure story for people who like those, but it isn't what I'm looking for in a sci-fi novel. Credit where credit is due, it gave me something to read that I didn't have to think too much about at a time when that was exactly what I needed. Michael Chrichton has done that for me a few times over the years with The Andromeda Strain, Sphere and Congo, so if you're looking for a page-turning escape from your own reality for awhile, this will probably do it.

Gentlmen Prefer Blondes by Anita Loos 

I probably should have enjoyed this more than I did. It's meant to be comedic, but I was annoyed with the main character, Lorelei Lee, most of the time. She comes across as a bit of an airhead, but, she insists, a woman of morals, who is also a master manipulator. She charms men into giving her expensive clothes, jewels, trips, etc, and they let her manipulate them because she's a sexy blonde who looks good on their arms and strokes their vanity. Nothing is said about what they get from her in return for their extravagant gifts, but it seems the more obvious from not being stated outright. 

I finished the book unable to decide if she's really dumb, really smart, or some weird hybrid of both. In any case it seems to end happily enough for her, but this story of men and women using each other while pretending affection was more sad than funny to me. To be fair, this might not have been the best time to read it, but I liked it so little I can't imagine giving it another shot. 

Winter in Thrush Green

 Winter in Thrush Green by Miss Read 

This second in the Thrush Green series - the first three will show the same cover because they are all in one volume - finds Dr. Lovell and  Ruth married and expecting their first child. Ben and Molly, also married now with a child, are traveling, running the fair since Mrs. Curdle, Ben's grandmother, passed away a year earlier.

The town is in a state of excitement waiting for the new owner of the house on the corner to move in, and is highly gratified to find it is to be single man, one who can look after himself and has a charming personality to go along with that rare and much-admired ability. He will be a new friend for the rector and the source of much friendly gossip for the townspeople. And he will stir up further excitement with his suggestion of a statue to celebrate the life of Nathaniel Patten, a celebrated missionary who was born in Thrush Green. 

The Church warden, Mr. Piggot, is as grumpy as ever, but perhaps will mellow a bit now with a little grandson in the picture, and with Nelly Tilling, an old school friend, taking a new interest in his well-being.  

Ella and Dimity, two old friends who have shared a home for many years, muddle along as usual. Dimity's developing friendship with the local rector leads Ella to realize that she hasn't appreciated nearly enough all that Dimity does for her and puts up with. She would miss her terribly were she to leave for a different life. 

The ordinary doings of daily life in the picturesque village of Thrush Green fill this second book as well as they did the first. Settling into any of Miss Read's books feels like going home; it's cozy and comfortable and truly pleasant reading. 

Born a Crime

 Born a Crime by Trevor Noah

Trevor Noah was born in South Africa under apartheid when it was a criminal offense for blacks and whites to be together as couples. With a black mother and white father, Trevor's very existence was a crime, so his identity had to be hidden for the first few years of his life.

Too dark-skinned to be completely accepted by whites and too light-skinned for blacks, he didn't fit in anywhere when he was growing up. His parents lived necessarily separate lives, though Trevor was able to spend time with both for a while, until his father eventually left the country.

Patricia, Trevor's mother, was, is, an amazing - and not-a-little intimidating - woman. Strong-willed, independent, and fiercely committed to seeing her son rise above his circumstances, he credits her with making him who he is today. She's a fascinating character, about whom I'd love to read more. Please, Trevor, get your Mum to write a book about her own life. What a story it must be.

Born a Crime is a window into life in the waning days of apartheid and the turbulent first days of freedom, a time I knew almost nothing about. A good story-teller, Trevor kept me glued to the page even when I wanted to look away. The stories are sometimes hilarious, sometimes sad and frightening, but I came away admiring both Trevor and his mother for not only surviving, but thriving in often cruel circumstances. God bless you both!

The Wonderful World of Henry Sugar

 The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar by Roald Dahl

A strange little story about a man who learned to see through things - blindfolds, closed eyelids, etc. He practiced for years the art of concentrating on a single object until eventually he could read a playing card laying face down on a table. At first it seemed an easy way to make money so he went to casinos, winning every game he played but carefully limiting himself at each location so as not to arouse suspicion.

He found the mere accumulation of wealth not very interesting when there was no challenge to it, so he looked for a purpose and found one in establishing and funding orphanages around the world. He hired a financial officer to take care of the money and handle the business end of things while he took to wearing various disguises so he could continue to gamble and win the funds needed to support the cause. This is how he lived the remainder of his life.

I listened to a very good audio version (2 hrs, 16 mins) narrated by Martin Jarvis. It’s odd - it is Roald Dahl - and kind of mesmerizing. Henry is…or at least, becomes…an appealing character, the plot is truly unique, and the story is well told. I’m about to watch the short film with Benedict Cumberbatch in the lead role and am curious to see how he interprets Henry.    

Quirky and satisfying; it made me smile.      

Wives And Daughters

 Wives and Daughters by Elizabeth Gaskell

When young Molly is invited to visit a neighbouring family for a few days, her father, Dr. Gibson, permits it, and so begins a relationship between the two families which will have consequences happy and sad for both.

Molly and her father are alone since her mother’s death and Molly grows attached to Mrs. Hamley. With the Hamley's sons away at school, they delight in the youthful energy Molly brings to their home again. 

When Mr. Hamley remarks to the doctor that Molly should have a mother to guide her as she grows to womanhood, he takes the advice seriously and begins looking around. The pickings are slim but he chooses a local widow, Mrs. Kirkpatrick, whom he believes will be a good mother to his daughter, and so, much to Molly's dismay, they are married. His choice turns out to be less than ideal but they all muddle along as best they can.

Clare Kirkpatrick brings with her to the marriage a daughter, the beautiful Cynthia, who doesn’t always make the wisest decisions but usually means well and becomes a much loved sister to Molly. When the Hamley boys, Osborne and Roger, come home from school, one is concealing from his father the fact that he has married a girl his family would never approve of and that they are expecting a child, and the other embarks on an ill-fated romance with one of the Gibson girls. The unexpected death of one of the young people affects both families deeply, but by the end of the book they all sort themselves out and Molly gets the happy ending the reader wants her to have.

I thoroughly enjoyed this and would have loved it for its language and narration even if it hadn’t had a good story. The audio version I listened to was nearly 27 hours long but was so beautifully read by Josephine Bailey that I wished there was more of it. I love the elegance of nineteenth century English in novels written before we started filling them with slang and swear words and such. It was a relief and a joy to sink into this one and hear it spoken with such grace. 

      

A Year of Living Prayerfully

 A Year of Living Prayerfully by Jared Brock

I honestly wasn't looking forward to reading this. My prayer life had been in a rut for some time and I figured it would be page after page of guilt, but no. It gave me a new perspective, a next step. I learned a great deal from it, and then, not wanting to forget the things he said that spoke so clearly to me, I read it again. Now I'm taking notes from all the parts I underlined. Half the book must be underlined by now and the next time I read it I'll probably underline the other half.

Jared Brock spent a year traveling the world and examining the prayer practices of various faiths. His goal was to learn what prayer meant to them and see how they communicated with God. As much as possible he wanted to experience prayer the way they did. He met with Hasidic Jews in New York, Quakers in Maryland, visited churches in Israel, stayed at a monastery in Greece and a Taizé community in France, and met the Pope at the Vatican. He offended North Korean authorities by not bowing to a picture of their leader, got caught in a hurricane at the end of the Camino de Compostela, visited a nudist church in Virginia, and asked the people at Westboro Baptist why they do the things they do. A roller-coaster of experiences.

His openness to new experiences and respect for people who believe differently than he does took him into situations and communities he might otherwise never have found and never benefitted from their teachings. The things he learned about silence and what it means to pray without words all came as a breath of fresh air to me. Here are some of his own thoughts and what he was taught by others that made, and continue to make, a difference for me:  

"God doesn't need our praise at all. We need it. We need the reminder."

"But prayer isn't a mind game; it's not a pseudo-scientific technique for achieving success in life. It's a deeply intimate form of communication with the Lover of our souls. Prayer isn't about self-improvement. We don't 'gain confidence'; we enter God's.....Prayer can get us through the fiery seasons of life, but it's not the prayer that gets us through - it's the God who's willing to carry us..."

"The third prayer practice is called examen,' he answered. 'You do it in the evenings, and it's a way of going back through your day and seeing where God was at work in your life. God is calling us all day, but we don't usually pick up. Examen is like checking voice mail."

"When I pray for salvation for people far from God, I imagine I'm bowing beside Jesus, and together we're presenting each precious name to the father."

"'I love God as much as the person I love the least.' This idea has really convicted me. I started holding my 'enemies' in the light, and now I love them."

"Fasting helps to express, to deepen, and to confirm the resolution that we are ready to sacrifice anything, to sacrifice ourselves, to attain what we seek for the Kingdom of God...Prayer is the reaching out after God and the unseen; fasting, the letting go of all that is seen and temporal."

A Year of Living Prayerfully is a lively story and an entertaining read, but more than that, it's a way of looking at prayer that has enriched my prayer life and deepened my relationship with God. 

Thank-you, Jared Brock.