January 28th, 2012 by Amanda
We’ve started a new book group on Friday nights. Our initial plan is to read the 22 “books” of St Augustine’s City of God over the course of 22 weeks. Last night Brent, Aimee, Mindi, Jared, and I all had spaghetti followed by discussion of book one.
Aimee emphasized the significance of Augustine’s view of women and purity (it’s a matter of the will and not the body). Mindi discussed her appreciation of how Augustine defended Christians (corporately and individually) against the pagans and did not blame them for not being holy enough or involved enough in their culture (more from her here). Jared had only read the first few pages and so mostly listened and questioned. Brent served as our fact – checker; he is better than Wikipedia. I made a few embarrassing blunders about Roman history but thoroughly enjoyed the chance to explore Augustine’s theology and the historical context of his work.
Next Friday we will gather again to discuss book two and hopefully have a few more join us.
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January 27th, 2012 by Amanda
I really enjoyed Ray Bradbury’s Something Wicked This Way Comes
(this was only the third Bradbury for me). It took me a while to get into it. The “weird” level was pretty high and it moved slowly. Eventually ( by about the last third of the book) it began to pay off. Bradbury’s vision is uncomfortable but still redemptive. I was surprised to find myself mentally comparing this book to Chesterton’s The Man Who Was Thursday. Of course, their style is quite different. Both are rich in their own way but Chesterton is tangy where Bradbury is complex. Thursday is more like a toast with a thick spread of lemon curd and Something Wicked like truffle ravioli…or something…
Anyway, the vision of joy overcoming fear and of life rooted in sturdy faithfulness unites the two books and makes Bradbury’s worth sticking through the slow and the weird.
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January 25th, 2012 by Amanda
I’ve been a bit scattered the last few days. The puppy might have something to do with my state of mind. He’s been pretty good, calm and eager to please, but keeps waking us up early. I hope I’m not an entirely lazy person and that I really do need the sleep I feel like I need but being shorted a few hours every night is seriously affecting me. Alex and Luc and I are spending lots of time running around the yard and the neighborhood with Rudy, so at least I’m getting some exercise!
I have finished a few books lately and want to blog about Something Wicked This Way Comes and Speaker for the Dead. I’ll try to get to those tomorrow. For now, I’m continuing with Pascal’s Pensees
(which I embarrassingly mispronounced recently), Ceasar’s Gallic Wars, and Augustine’s City of God.
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January 22nd, 2012 by Amanda
Despite growing up with a wide variety of pets (dogs, cats, bunnies, horses, etc.), as an adult I haven’t been interested in having any animals around. I like neatness, order, and pleasant smells. Also, two little boys require plenty of time, energy, and love and I haven’t felt up to taking on more responsibility.
Still, Alex has wanted a dog for the last few years and Luc has been eager for any kind of pet. Jared and I had discussed getting a dog at some unspecified point in the future and determined to get a poodle or a poodle cross. We wanted an intelligent dog that didn’t shed. Purebred poodles can be quite expensive, as are the popular poodle crosses like the labradoodle and the golden-doodle. We figured it would be several years before we could afford one.
Last week I got a phone call from my MIL and she told us that some friends knew a breeder who was giving away the last pup from a pair of labradoodle litters. We expressed our interest but didn’t hear back from the breeder until Friday. That afternoon we went and picked up “Rudy” – Alex named him after a character from Ice Age 2, I think. He is about 11 weeks old, calm and agreeable, and very cute. Since he’s very black it has been difficult to get a good picture of him. We haven’t had nice sunny weather to pose him in, but here are a few shots anyway:
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January 19th, 2012 by Amanda
I finished Orson Scott Card’s Seventh Son
yesterday and was relieved to discover today (when I could access Wikipedia) that it was only the first of a series. It was so unsatisfying as a stand-alone book that I suspected it had to be. Set in an alternate history of America that includes magical abilities and a clever collection of twists and commentaries on our culture it is a brisk and enjoyable read.
I enjoy the concept of the powers of a seventh son (though I think N.D. Wilson’s take
is superior) and Card’s book was such an engaging set-up that I’m eager to read the rest of the series. I am now reading Ender’s Game and also enjoying it. Card’s stories are thoughtful but still rather light and they are quick reads. I think I’m ready to turn to heavier books for awhile.
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January 18th, 2012 by Amanda
I didn’t watch the movie “The Wizard of Oz” until I was in my 20s. I read the book some years later. Neither of them are terribly good fantasy. I find Baum’s vision of Oz flat, cheap, and empty. The tale lacks truth, beauty, and goodness.
Gregory Maguire’s reworking of Oz in Wicked
is more interesting and complex than Baum’s original but it still doesn’t rise very high. According to the jacket flap this book will make the reader “question the nature of good and evil.”
It wishes.
Both the plot and characters are muddled. Not complex but confused. Motives are not simply difficult to discern, they are non-existent. Maguire, like Baum, has an incoherent vision of an alternate world without any unifying theory or philosophy. The characters seem to have been grabbed from a variety of separate works and then huddled together between the covers of Wicked. Glinda is visiting from a boarding school novel, the Wicked Witch of the East from a satire on religious asceticism, the Wicked Witch of the West from an early feminist tract, and the Wizard is imported from the original but given a dose of Central Planning and Zoning steroids. The first section of the book seems to have been ripped out of a modern novel of domestic misunderstanding and unhappiness (perhaps gender-reversed Rabbit Run?) and then grafted onto the beginning.
Frankly, the whole thing is a mess and the ending is the worst part: an anti-climactic and meaningless jumble.
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January 17th, 2012 by Amanda
I finished G.K Chesterton’s Heretics
(link takes you to the free Kindle download) about a week ago. It is a companion volume to his excellent Orthodoxy which I read some years ago. As is often the case with Chesterton, Heretics is only moderately successful so far from it’s publication. While it’s style is invigoratingly confident and Chesterton’s perspective is so cheerfully sane, it is often difficult to follow the frequent references to early 20th century authors, politicians, and issues. The power of Chesterton’s prose makes me nearly certain that I would agree with all his judgments if I only knew exactly what he was talking about at all times. When I am familiar with the work of an author he references, I learn from his commentary; when I’m not, I wish I could.
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January 16th, 2012 by Amanda
OK. The laptop and I have an uneasy truce going on. It still crashes frequently and is unpredictable but will occasionally stay operational for whole hours at a time. Back to our regularly scheduled book reviews…
I recently finished William Gibson’s Neuromancer
. And I really don’t know what to think of it.
I did enjoy the book. The plot was intriguing: well-paced and complex. The protagonist precisely, if lightly, drawn. It is an atmospheric story: one without much exposition but where every detail tells. I am not familiar with cyberpunk but I know that Neuromancer is much praised as a pioneering title in the genre. All of this to say that I think the book stands well on it’s own but it will likely be even more engaging and important to those with specific interest in cyberpunk.
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January 14th, 2012 by Amanda
Our laptop has been acting up, crashing, failing to run power, and generally being a royal pain. I have been almost entirely offline for three whole days. Shocking I know.
I have missed being able to write the most. True, pen and paper are always available, but I am so accustomed to the ease of the keyboard and instant publishing that I haven’t been using them. I find it much easier to be creative when I can type!
I have also missed reading “stuff” online. I follow a few message boards and online communities and have missed those conversations. I have been reading books at an even faster than usual pace (reviews to come). Anyway, our laptop is working intermittently and we are planning to buy a new one in the next day or two. I look forward to getting back to normal…
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January 10th, 2012 by Amanda
I took a trip from Boise to Idaho Falls to visit my sister Quinn last weekend. It is about a four hour drive (a bit less if you keep your cruise set at 80, ahem!). I had been planning this trip ever since Thanksgiving, which was the last time I’d seen my sister. I very much enjoy road trips especially if I can go alone. Peace and quiet and nobody to judge my snacking habits!
In December I signed up for a free trial at Audible.com and downloaded Neil Gaiman’s Neverwhere. This was both my first Gaiman and my first audiobook.
First to review the medium: I am not much suited to audiobooks. This particular audiobook may be a good or a bad example of the medium and I wouldn’t know, however, based on this example I don’t think I will be trying any new ones. It did while away the hours of driving at least as well as music would have done but not much better (and I am no lover of music). I was almost continually frustrated by how slowly Gaiman was reading his book to me; I could have finished it in less than half the 8 hours I spent on the road and I still have 4 and 1/2 hours left of the book! Were I often on the road I could perhaps incorporate audiobooks into otherwise non-reading time. As I am not, I shan’t. I was also frequently annoyed by sound-effects. Not contented to read me the narration describing a voice as coming over a static-heavy telephone line, Gaiman had to create that effect with static that made it difficult to understand the words. A book is not a radio-play; if I must listen to it instead of read it I would prefer straight narration with no more than slight intonation changes indicating different characters.
As to reviewing the book itself, I am only two thirds of the way through the book. I have frequently enjoyed Gaiman’s clever turn of phrase and am moderately eager to discover the outcome of the story. I find Door to be an engaging character but Richard an annoyingly dull one. Gaiman’s didactic purpose is blindingly obvious but not entirely offensive. We’ll see how it ends once I scare up a print copy, or find four and a half hours of walking or driving time to devote to the remainder.
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