Let's Bust a Recap : 2020

It's the last day of 2020.

Let's all just sit for a minute and appreciate that.

I don't have to go into detail about any of the ways this year has been an absolute dumpster fire, but I do want to remember a few of the sweetest things that happened this year. 

***

- I got to spend time with every single member of my family this year. Seeing as my siblings are spread out all over the globe and two of them are actively serving in the military, this one's a big deal for me.

- My husband stayed healthy working in the ER all year, AND in November he began an awesome new job at the hospital he works at which is an answer to a prayer we've been praying for two years.

- My husband and I also celebrated eight happy years of marriage in May, and The Melting Pot opened back up for business just in time for us to have our traditional anniversary date.

- My newest nephew was born healthy after a safe pregnancy, and despite all the travel restrictions I was finally able to travel to Germany to meet him. (I'm here now!)

- I instituted weekly one-on-one dates with my four nieces who live near me and we've had the funnest times together.

- My dad retired as the senior pastor from our church of 25 years, and even though this is a bit of a mixed blessing, I'm so thankful our church has already found a new senior pastor we love and the transition has been good. I'm also happy my parents are so happy with their new place in life. Even though they left me.

- One of my brothers moved back to Florida after being away from us for a long time.

- In April, I had a five-day slumber party bash reminiscent of our middle school days with three of my best friends. Even though we didn't get to go on the trip we'd been planning for a year, we had the absolute best time with our revised 2020 version of events. 

- I surprised my sister who lives in Oklahoma by showing up on her doorstep on her birthday.

- My sisters and I started a book club. How on brand is that??

- And I read a lot of really great books this year.

2020 will probably live in infamy forever, but when I look back at this insane year, these are the things I want to remember. 

And since one of the things I want to remember is all the great books I read this year, let's get on to that. My yearly book lists and end of the year recaps are my favorite posts on this blog and certainly the ones I reference the most often. This year, my 2020 book list consisted of 21 books and I said in my first post of the year that I'd be aiming to read 24 books. I didn't get to five of the books on my list, but I ended up reading 41 books over all and that makes 2020 my second best reading year since I started tracking my reading back in 2015. (2018 is still my best reading year ever.)

So what did I actually read this year? I'm so glad you asked.

Rainbow Valley by L.M. Montgomery (re-read) : completed 1/12

Always a pleasure to visit the Blythe family and an Anne book is always the perfect way to begin a new year.

The Reckoning by John Grisham : completed 2/5

The first John Grisham I've read since high school, and it made me want to revisit all my old favorites. (Which you may find me doing in 2021.)

A Little Princess by Frances Hodgson Burnett : completed 2/23

Really excited for The Secret Garden after having finally read and loved this one. I think my sisters are going to read it with me in our new book club.

All's Well that Ends Well by William Shakespeare : completed 3/2

I have so much fun writing my Shakespeare recaps, and this one was a riot.

The Voyage of the Dawn Treader by C.S. Lewis (re-read; read aloud) : completed 3/8

My husband and I continued our read-aloud of The Chronicles of Narnia and finished the series which was certainly a welcome escape this year.

Lies Women Believe by Nancy Leigh DeMoss : completed 3/20

Tuck Everlasting by Natalie Babbitt : completed 3/30

My favorite book of 2020. I was 100% delighted by this charming little book.

Maisie Dobbs by Jacqueline Winspear : completed 4/6

Looking forward to more Maisie Dobbs! My parents liked this first one so much that I ended up getting them the first six books in the series for Christmas. 

Sisterchicks Down Under! by Robin Jones Gunn : completed 4/13

Charlotte's Web by E.B. White : completed 4/15

The Wednesday Letters by Jason F. Wright : completed 4/17

Still stands as the most unputdownable book of the year.

Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston : completed 4/28

Being Known by Robin Jones Gunn : completed 4/30

The Silver Chair by C.S. Lewis (re-read; read aloud) : completed 5/6

This one and The Last Battle were ones my husband had never read before so it was really fun reading these to him.

Of Mess and Moxie by Jen Hatmaker : completed 5/15

Not impressed. But her letter to her parents really resonated with me, and I loved that part of the book.

Farmer Boy by Laura Ingalls Wilder (re-read; read aloud) : completed 5/27

Eleanor Oliphant Is Completely Fine by Gail Honeyman : completed 5/30

Very pleased at how this one lived up to the hype.

John Quincy Adams: Militant Spirit by James Traub : completed 7/7

James Herriot's Treasury for Children (read aloud) : completed 7/16

Pippi Longstocking by Astrid Lindgren (re-read; read aloud) : completed 7/29

So fun revisiting this one after more than 20 years. (Still hard to admit I'm old enough to say things like this.)

Middlemarch by George Eliot : completed 7/29

TOO LONG. I can't forgive Evans for that. But a friend gifted me Silas Marner for Christmas and I'm looking forward to reading one of her (much shorter) popular novels.

Ballet Shoes by Noel Streatfeild : completed 8/13

Kathleen Kelly did not steer me wrong.

The Last Battle by C.S. Lewis (re-read; read aloud) : completed 8/16

Get Out of Your Head by Jennie Allen : completed 8/18

First book I read with my sisters in our new book club, and we also did the corresponding Bible study. The book and the study were a little disjointed, but both were challenging and the process of going through them together helped my sisters and me deepen our relationships with one another.

All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr : completed 8/26

Excellent. No surprise it's a Pulitzer-winner.

Cymbeline by William Shakespeare : completed 8/31

Not so much a tragedy, but thank goodness because I don't know if I could have handled a tragedy on the level of King Lear or Othello at this point in 2020.

This Momentary Marriage by John Piper : completed 9/8

I think this was the best choice for my proper introduction to Piper.

The Four Loves by C.S. Lewis : completed 9/16

Having a Mary Heart in a Martha World by Joanna Weaver : completed 9/29

Favorite nonfiction book of the year. 

Something Wicked This Way Comes by Ray Bradbury : completed 10/11

THE book to read in October. This was my choice for our sister book club.

The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry : completed 10/12

Still heartbroken over that beautiful dedication.

The Twits by Roald Dahl : completed 10/23

Loved my first Dahl books this year and very much looking forward to a deeper dive into more next year.

The Tenant of Wildfell Hall by Anne Brontë : completed 10/26

This novel truly solidified my love for Anne Brontë. She's my favorite and deserves at least as much recognition as Charlotte and Emily.

The Witches by Roald Dahl : completed 10/30

Andrew Jackson by H.W. Brands : completed 11/22

My favorite presidential biography (and president!) to date.

The Masterpiece by Francine Rivers (re-read) : completed 11/27

Lyndsey's choice for our sister book club. 

The Bean Trees by Barbara Kingsolver : completed 11/29

The book I probably had no business reading this year (because I snatched it out of a Little Free Library even though I already had a book with me) but I'm glad I did anyway.

The Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank : completed 12/11

Recap coming soon. Just couldn't quite pull it all together before the holidays, but suffice it to say: this book certainly helped me keep a proper perspective in the midst of 2020.

Robert & Elizabeth Barrett Browning: Selected Poems : completed 12/20

Thanks to Whitney at The Unread Shelf and her Unread Book Bingo, I read my first complete book of poetry. I have a couple different shelves full of poetry at my house, and I have the best intentions to read them, but my approach to poetry thus far in life has been to read a random poem here and there. 

The Passions of Andrew Jackson by Andrew Burstein : completed 12/28

Interesting follow-up to the biography by Brands. Burstein attempted to reveal Jackson's psyche, and while I didn't agree with all of his conclusions, it was interesting to see the way a different author attached more significance to certain details of Jackson's life that another author hardly mentioned at all; and overall, my admiration for Jackson remained fully in tact—possibly even increased.

One Crazy Summer by Rita Williams-Garcia : completed 12/31

Not quite done with this one, but I'll definitely finish it today and a recap is coming soon!

As I mentioned in my Roald Dahl recap, 2020 turned out to be The Year of the Children's Classic for me, and that really seems perfect given all the craziness we've endured. Even though I've felt overwhelmed and distracted a lot this year, looking back on the books I read is somehow grounding and comforting. I'm really looking forward to reading more next year. My plan is going to look a little different so I hope you tune back in for that post. 

As always, I'd love to hear about what YOU read this year, and I'd especially love to hear some of the GREAT things that were part of your life in 2020. And if you're feeling discouraged or alone, please feel free to drop me a line via the Contact Me! box on the right side of the screen (scroll down and enable the "Web View" if you're reading from your phone). I would love to chat with you. 

Keep on Keeping On & Keep Reading the Best Books First!

Let's Bust a Recap : The Tenant of Wildfell Hall

Y'all. Today is a big day. Today, for the first time ever in 2020, the To-Be-Blogged stack is cleared. We are officially caught up, you guys, and it feels so good. I'll probably be finishing The Diary of Anne Frank later today, but that is neither here nor there. For this brief moment in time, there are no books sitting in a pile, waiting to be blogged about before returning to their rightful homes on my bookshelves. Please, join me in a happy dance.  

I picked up this pretty, clothbound edition of The Tenant of Wildfell Hall at Powell's in Portland, OR a few years ago (yes, on the same visit I bought All the Light We Cannot See), and have been looking forward to reading it ever since. It was also one of the books on my 2019 book list and I had planned to read it with a friend which is probably the reason I did not end up reading it. (Sorry, Jen!) Don't try to understand how my mind works. It's a wild place. 

The Tenant of Wildfell Hall by Anne Brontë was originally published in 1848 under Anne's male pseudonym "Acton Bell" and was an instant success. The novel is framed as a series of letters from Gilbert Markham (to his friend, Halford) about the events surrounding his introduction and subsequent friendship with a mysterious young widow (calling herself "Helen Graham") who arrives at Wildfell Hall (an old abandoned mansion in the neighborhood) with her young son and a female servant. Markham is writing these letters in 1847 but is referring to the time Helen first comes to Wildfell Hall in 1827. In the course of his letters, he reveals part of Helen's diary (which she gave to him) which flashes back even further to 1821. As we read her diary, we discover that Helen fell in love and married young thinking she could fix the flaws of her man because people get better, right?

Wrong. She finally ends up running away from her husband with her young son in tow in the hopes of preserving them both from her cheating, alcoholic husband. 

While the contents of The Tenant of Wildfell Hall may not seem very shocking to us today in the 21st century, the sensation it created in Victorian society at the time cannot be overstated. A woman supporting herself financially was one thing, but a woman leaving her husband and taking their child with her violated social convention and early 19th century English law. Critics today consider it one of the first feminist novels, but at the time it was published, Anne got roasted. Even her own sister Charlotte tried to prevent the re-publication of The Tenant of Wildfell Hall after Anne's death saying, and I quote, "'Wildfell Hall' it hardly appears desirable to preserve." People have speculated about Charlotte's motives for this, but I intend to agree with the class that thinks she was a jealous old hag. (Except not actually old since she wasn't even 40 at the time.)

Anne defended herself against the critics of her day in a preface to the second edition saying:

...when we have to do with vice and vicious characters, I maintain it is better to depict them as they really are than as they would wish to appear. To represent a bad thing in its least offensive light is doubtless the most agreeable course for a writer of fiction to pursue; but is it the most honest, or the safest? Is it better to reveal the snares and pitfalls of life to the young and thoughtless traveller, or to cover them with branches and flowers? O Reader! if there were less of this delicate concealment of facts—this whispering 'Peace, peace,' when there is no peace—there would be less of sin and misery to the young of both sexes who are left to wring their bitter knowledge from experience.

Okay, Anne! You go ahead with your bad self, girlfriend!

She goes on in the preface to stick it to the critics who suspected her feminine identity thereby dismissing her work, saying: 

I am satisfied that if a book is a good one, it is so whatever the sex of the author may be. All novels are or should be written for both men and women to read, and I am at a loss to conceive how a man should permit himself to write anything that would be really disgraceful to a woman, or why a woman should be censured for writing anything that would be proper and becoming for a man.

 I mean, she was sassy and I'm here for it.

A lot of critics, both in her time and even now, think the only reason her work has endured is through the reputation of her sisters and her connection as an author with them. I call foul. I intimated a few years ago after reading her first novel, Agnes Grey, that I thought her work was just as good (maybe even better) than Charlotte's and Emily's, and after reading The Tenant of Wildfell Hall, she has solidified her status as my favorite of the Brontë sisters. As opposed to their Romanticism, she was one of the few authors of her time who employed Realism and it rang true. During certain parts of Helen's diary where she is describing a party at which her husband and his friends are getting drunk, I was squirming with discomfort. She perfectly encapsulated the experience of being in that atmosphere. 

I loved Agnes Grey, but The Tenant of Wildfell Hall is Anne Brontë's true masterpiece. It's such a shame she died so young. (29!) I can only imagine what else she might have produced given more time and experience on this earth. I'm glad she's finally getting her time in the sun. I'm not the only Anne fan around these days. While The Tenant of Wildfell Hall isn't exactly a light, fun novel, I couldn't put it down and flew through it in less than a fortnight (as our Victorian authors like to say). If you're going to get into the Brontë sisters, don't sleep on Anne!

Have you read any of the Brontës' work? I still have Villette and Shirley by Charlotte to go, and I also have Emily's complete poetry that I haven't really gotten into yet. What's your favorite of the Brontë sisters' novels?

P.S. Shoutout to my husband's co-worker Amanda who helped me figure out which photo to post with this recap, and which to post over on my Instagram. Thanks, girl!

Let's Bust a Recap : Roald Dahl

Today's post is a 2-for-1, a BOGO if you will, because I have finally read Roald Dahl, and I read both of these within a week of each other. 

Yes, I said finally. I grew up watching Matilda and Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, but I had never actually read a single book by Roald Dahl until just a few weeks ago. Because he has written some of the best-loved children's stories of the 20th century, he's been on my LIFE LIST for years, but because he has written so many hits I've always been a tad unsure of where to begin or which books I should add to my library. 

Well, my husband solved that problem for me by getting me a fun box set of sixteen of his books for my birthday, and my friend Courtney and her kids unanimously decided that I should begin with The Twits. So that's exactly what I did.

The Twits was originally published in 1980, and by that time, Dahl was already a well-known author of children's novels. In it, we meet the awful Mr. and Mrs. Twit who spend their days pulling nasty pranks on one another. They keep a family of pet monkeys called Muggle-Wumps which they also mistreat, and on Wednesday evenings they like to have bird pie for supper which they make out of the birds that Mr. Twit shoots after trapping them on his tree with Hug-Tight Sticky Glue. In this hilarious tale, the birds and the Muggle-Wumps finally give the Twits their comeuppance in one of the most delightfully funny endings ever. 

The idea for The Twits was triggered by Dahl's hatred of beards which he desired to "do something against." The beginning of the book goes into painstaking detail of how disgusting Mr. Twit and his enormous beard are. I think the fact that Dahl wrote an entire book solely because of his aversion to facial hair is almost as funny as the book itself. 

The Witches was published three years later in 1983, and I chose to read this one because my husband gave me the box set when it arrived (instead of making me wait till my birthday) and I thought The Witches would be fun to read on Halloween. (Spoiler: I was right.) In this one, we meet a little boy who has gone to live with his Norwegian grandmother after the death of his parents. The boy loves his grandmother and all her stories, but his favorite is the one about real witches. His grandmother warns him that witches live in every country in the world and it is their one goal in life to kill children. (Dahl's children's books are notoriously macabre and darkly comic, featuring villainous grown-up enemies of children.) When the boy and his grandmother uncover the Grand High Witch's evil plot to kill all the children in England (and eventually the world), they have to work together to stop it. 

The Twits was fun, but I loved The Witches. Both books were funny and a little dark, and I think I really would have enjoyed them when I was younger (especially The Witches). 2020 seems to be the year of children's classics for me, and I'm not mad at it. I usually incorporate children's books into all my reading lists, but this year in particular I seem to be reaching for all the books I missed out on as a kid. I read for the first time and fell in love with such gems as A Little Princess, Tuck Everlasting, Charlotte's Web, Ballet Shoes, and The Little Prince. Not to mention I read Pippi Longstocking for the first time in over 20 years and the entirety of James Herriot's Treasury for Children. It's definitely been a sweet reading year for me.

But back to the matter at hand: I would absolutely recommend Roald Dahl. I don't see how you could make it through a read-aloud with your kids without giggling your way through, and even if you don't have any kids in your life to read to, these are fun ones to giggle yourself through. I'm looking forward to diving into more of his work next year, and I think the next one I pick up has to be Matilda because I loved the movie when I was a kid. But if you want to suggest your favorite, let me know!

What's your favorite book by Roald Dahl? Do you read or re-read children's books when life starts to go sideways? What's one of your favorites?

Let's Bust a Recap : The Bean Trees

Let me tell you a little story. 

Once upon a time, there was a girl who loved books. She took a book with her wherever she went. You could find her reading any time a pair of seconds popped up—standing in line to vote, waiting for a table at a restaurant, or even stuck in traffic. She made a list of books for herself to read at the start of each new year. She was always acquiring new books even though she had shelves full at home waiting for her attention. 

One day, she took her car to the shop for some routine maintenance. As was her custom, she had a book with her, a book she was more than halfway through reading. After dropping her little car off with the trusty mechanics, she walked to the nearby lake, found a bench, and settled in to read her book, the book she owned and had been reading for several weeks. 

It being a chilly morning with a brisk breeze coming off the lake, the girl, clad in just her hoodie and jeans, decided after about an hour of reading on the bench by the lake to change location in the hopes of warming up a bit. So she walked downtown, away from the lake, to sit in the sunshine by a beautiful fountain to continue reading her book, the book she brought with her, the book she'd been reading for the past hour. 

Alas, as she neared the lovely fountain in the center of town with the sunshine beaming down on her, the girl happened to pass a Little Free Library. Being the book-lover she was, she naturally detoured directly to the Little Free Library to have a look inside. Upon a few moments perusal, the girl found a book she had never heard of that looked interesting and she proceeded with this book, the book she had not brought with her, a book she'd never heard of, to a nearby bench by the pretty fountain and immediately began to read the new book leaving the book she'd brought with her completely ignored and rejected in her purse. 

That girl is me. 

And the book from the Little Free Library is The Bean Trees by Barbara Kingsolver. 

(And if you—like me—need every detail when being told a story: the book I originally brought with me was The Diary of Anne Frank, a book I still haven't finished.)

Not only did I procure and read this book at the end of the year while I was in the middle of reading three books and furiously trying to finish up books from my 2020 book list, it's now jumping in line to be recapped before three other books I finished in October. (Before I even knew this book existed.) 

Such is the life of a bookworm. 

Anyway, The Bean Trees by Barbara Kingsolver was originally published in 1988 and was Kingsolver's debut novel. She has since gone on to become one of the most well-known authors in the United States (and world, to be honest). I also own her most famous book, The Poisonwood Bible, though it's one of the books sitting on a bookshelf in my house, waiting for me to read it. 

In The Bean Trees, we're introduced to Marietta Greer. Everyone in her hometown in rural Kentucky calls her Missy but she's determined to make it out of Pittman, and as soon as she leaves town, she decides she needs a new name. 

"I wasn't crazy about anything I had been called up to that point in life, and this seemed like the time to make a clean break. I didn't have any special name in mind, but just wanted a change. The more I thought about it, the more it seemed to me that a name is not something a person really has a right to pick out, but is something you're provided with more or less by chance. I decided to let the gas tank decide. Wherever it ran out, I'd look for a sign. 

I came pretty close to being named after Homer, Illinois, but kept pushing it. I kept my fingers crossed through Sidney, Sadorus, Cerro Gordo, Decatur, and Blue Mound, and coasted into Taylorville on the fumes. And so I am Taylor Greer. I suppose you could say I had some part in choosing this name, but there was enough of destiny in it to satisfy me."

In her '55 Volkswagen, Taylor heads west to make a new life for herself. But on the way, she ends up with a tiny Indian girl. When they finally settle in Tucson, Taylor finds community in a newly single mother, Lou Ann, and Mattie, the owner of Jesus Is Lord Used Tires. What follows is at the heart of this memorable novel about love and friendship, abandonment and belonging, and the discovery of surprising resources in apparently empty places. 

This novel hooked me from the very first page. Taylor's down-home, audacious voice was a delight to read, and the strong, tight female relationships highlighted throughout the entire story were a joy to discover. I will say that the book started to drag a bit in the middle for me, and I think Kingsolver could have used a bit of focus in that midsection. Certain points the author was driving at were a tad heavy-handed, even a little preachy at times. Not so in-your-face that I wanted to stop reading, but enough to make me roll my eyes a couple times. But the end was just as strong as the beginning and given that this was her debut novel, I can forgive the slightly scattered sections. Kingsolver's natural wit and wisdom made this book a pleasure to read overall, and I enjoyed it. I even got sorta choked up at the end.

I enjoyed The Bean Trees, and I'm glad I found it, but it's not necessarily a book I would shove into the hands of all my BFFs insisting they read it pronto (which I have been known to do). I would definitely recommend it if you're looking to start small with Barbara Kingsolver (The Bean Trees is less than half the length of The Poisonwood Bible), or if you're tired of romance and looking for a story with themes of friendship and family that make you proud of the human spirit. 

Have you read The Bean Trees or anything else by Barbara Kingsolver? Do you have any irrational tendencies like starting a new book you've never heard of even when you are literally in the middle of a different book that you actually have in hand?

Let's Bust a Recap : The Little Prince

It seems fitting to post my recap of The Little Prince today, the day that lives in infamy, the day the United States was drawn into WWII. The famous author and pilot, Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, was grounded and living in the United States at the time Pearl Harbor was bombed. During his two years in the United States (between stints of flying reconnaissance missions in the French Air Force despite being far past the maximum age for such pilots and in declining health), he wrote this little novella that can't properly be classified as a children's book, nor a book for adults. 

That's because this book is for everyone. And up until a couple months ago, I had never read it. 

The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry was first published in the United States in 1943 in both English and French. Since that time, it has sold an estimated 140 million copies and has been translated into over 300 languages and dialects making it one of the best selling and most translated books of all time. My particular edition of this classic was translated from the original French by Richard Howard in 2000. It's been adapted into numerous art forms—not just movies and television but opera and ballet—and it continually draws new readers and reviewers selling about two million copies annually. How in the world it's taken me this long to finally read it is a true mystery, but I'm so glad it came to me in 2020.

From the back cover of my edition: 

A pilot stranded in the desert awakes one morning to see, standing before him, the most extraordinary little fellow. "Please," asks the stranger, "draw me a sheep." And the pilot realizes that when life's events are too difficult to understand, there is no choice but to succumb to their mysteries. He pulls out pencil and paper...And thus begins this wise and enchanting fable that, in teaching the secret of what is really important in life, has changed forever the world for its readers.

I fell in love with this book on page one when the narrator shows us his drawing of a boa constrictor digesting an elephant and describes how tiresome it is to be always explaining things to grown-ups. Actually, this book broke my heart even before it began with one of the most poignant dedications I've ever read, and quite frankly, the entire book is worth it just for Saint-Exupéry's dedication to his friend Leon Werth, in my opinion. But the story itself is chock-full of keen observations of the nature of man and piercing insights into the human condition. All of that along with Saint-Exupéry's simple illustrations make this a book you don't want to miss. The Little Prince fully embodies the quote by Henry David Thoreau that inspired this blog: "Read the best books first, or you may not have a chance to read them at all." 

My little copy of this novella is particularly dear to me because my niece (who is not quite nine years old) gave it to me for my birthday this year. She remembered me mentioning months ago (maybe even more than a year ago) that I've been wanting this book for a long time and she found it herself at the bookstore and was so excited to give it to me that she couldn't even wait until my birthday. She loves to read, too, and it is the joy of my heart to be able to discuss books with her. This book will always have a special place in my heart because it was a gift of love from her. 

And if you haven't read it, get thee to a bookstore or library immediately and join the millions who have fallen in love with The Little Prince. This is definitely a book everyone should read and I can't think of a better time or place to read it than a quiet evening at the end of 2020 in front of your Christmas tree. 

Have you read The Little Prince? What's one of your most treasured books and why?

Let's Bust a Recap : Something Wicked This Way Comes

"First of all, it was October, a rare month for boys. Not that all months aren't rare. But there be bad and good, as the pirates say."

So begins this 1962 offering from author Ray Bradbury. I really wanted to post about this book in October because it is the quintessential October book, but publishing my recap of Something Wicked This Way Comes on Black Friday seemed like the next best option. Anyone? Anyone? Bueller? 

Well, anyway, Something Wicked This Way Comes is about 13-almost-14 year old best friends and neighbors Jim Nightshade and Will Halloway. When a traveling carnival comes suddenly and mysteriously into town, the boys find themselves inside a nightmare come to life, and in the process must face their personal demons, hang tight to their friendship, and help one another against the outside forces which threaten to transmogrify their lives forever. (How do you like that word "transmogrify"? I just discovered it. It's basically a creepy way of saying change.)

And I loved it. 

It was just creepy enough for me without giving me nightmares. The combination of fantasy and horror was spellbinding. The plot was absorbing. Bradbury's prose was mesmerizing. And the exchange between Will and his dad in chapter 28 immediately became one of my all time favorite literary scenes. I love a good versus evil story and that's just what this is. The tension between Will's contentment with childhood and Jim's desire to grow up tugged at my heart, and my favorite part of the whole story was the emotional arc that Will's dad undergoes. 

Something Wicked This Way Comes is the first book I've read by Ray Bradbury, but I also have Dandelion Wine and Fahrenheit 451 waiting on my shelves. Bradbury is one of the most celebrated 20th and 21st century American authors, but because he's known for being a sci-fi/horror/fantasy writer, I've never been particularly eager to read him even while keeping his books on my LIFE LIST for years. After finally reading Something Wicked This Way Comes however, I'm ready for more. 

I can't recommend this book enough, especially if, like me, you're always on the hunt for a spooky, atmospheric read that won't keep you awake at night. This is for sure a book I'll come back to but for the love of everything, only in October. This book was absolutely meant to be experienced in October and if you plan to read it, don't you dare pick it up in any other month!

What are some of your favorite spooky reads?

Let's Bust a Recap : All the Light We Cannot See

I picked up All the Light We Cannot See a couple of years ago at Powell's in Portland, Oregon. It was a fun find because this hardcover edition was cheaper than all the paperback editions on the shelf. I brought it home and actually put it on my 2019 book list just a few months later, but I didn't get around to reading it last year. After so many people told me I should not put it off, it ended up on my book list again in 2020, and in August I finally read it. 

I know I'm late to the party, but wow. I was hooked from the beginning and told my dad he should read it after I was done as I happened to be visiting him in North Carolina at the time. He started to skim it and then had the nerve to try to hide it from me. After I actually finished it, he read it. Then my Gramma read it. Then my mom read it.

We all recommend it.

All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr was published in 2014 and spent 130 consecutive weeks on the New York Times Best Seller List. The New York Times then included it in its 10 Best Books of the Year, it was a National Book Award finalist, it won the Pulitzer Prize in 2015, and the Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Fiction. 

Set mainly in occupied France during WWII, the story spans from 1934 all the way to 2014. The book opens during the 1944 bombing of Saint-Malo on the Emerald Coast of Brittany. We are introduced to a blind French girl named Marie-Laure LeBlanc and a young German soldier named Werner Pfennig. Marie-Laure has fled Paris with her father to stay with her reclusive great-uncle in the walled citadel of Saint-Malo, while Werner has come through the ranks of the Hitler Youth with a special talent for building and fixing radios. Throughout the novel, Doerr flashes back and forth between the past leading up to the bombing, and the bombing itself until the past finally catches up with the main storyline. And let me tell you, the man knows how to leave you on a cliffhanger then flash you back eight years in time which has you racing through the book, trying to get back to what's going on directly after the bombing. The last two sections of the book give us a glimpse into the future with a bit from 1974 and then finally 2014. 

J.R. Moehringer said, "Doerr sees the world as a scientist, but feels it as a poet." In All the Light We Cannot See, Doerr would describe in detail the inner workings of a radio or an intricate lock system, but then in the next sentence, pen a unique turn of phrase or make a keen observation of human nature that would leave my heart aching. He juxtaposed the cruel, brutality of war with the absolute breathtaking beauty of nature in a jarring yet somehow seamless way, and I was captivated with his writing. While I have a couple of friends who told me they didn't make it very far into this one, I was enthralled from the first page and had a hard time putting this book down. I definitely get the hype surrounding it, and I'm glad I read it. While the writing is unsentimental, and the content heartbreaking, Doerr manages to bring us an ultimately uplifting and compelling story, and I was here for it.

With all that being said and as much as I highly recommend this novel, I have to point out it's just that: a novel. WWII was a real and horrendous time in history, and as much as I enjoy a good story, I try to balance my reading of that time period with nonfiction accounts of real people and their stories. If you haven't read The Hiding Place by Corrie ten Boom or Night by Elie Wiesel or Unbroken by Laura Hillenbrand, please don't miss out on them because you think they might be dry or too hard to read. The market seems to be pretty saturated with WWII fiction (and believe me, I own my fair share of it), but the real life accounts are so important for us to read and remember. I'm currently reading The Diary of Anne Frank and plan to share about it here soon. 

Have you read All the Light We Cannot See or some other novel set during WWII that you thought was outstanding? Do you like reading historical fiction or do you try to stick to facts? I have a whole shelf full of books centering around that particular time in our history and it's still amazing to me how it affected every corner of our world. 

Let's Bust a Recap : Andrew Jackson

Well, Andrew Jackson is my new favorite president. I haven't really been ranking my favorites publicly on the blog since beginning this project, but let me give you a little update. 

Before officially beginning this project of reading through the American presidents in chronological order, I would have claimed Eisenhower as my favorite. Once beginning my literary quest, I decided I would try to put aside my preconceived ideas of the presidents I knew about and approach this goal with fresh eyes. Before getting to this biography of Jackson, my ranking was George Washington as my favorite with John Adams and James Madison tying for the 2nd and 3rd place spots. (We're going to keep my ranking to 1st, 2nd, and 3rd because after that it just gets tedious.) After this biography of Jackson by H.W. Brands, Jackson is now our gold medalist, with George Washington hanging on to silver, and Adams and Madison duking it out for bronze. In future, I'll let you know if anyone gets knocked off the stand. Because I'm sure this is what you all care about and why you come here to read my recaps, right? 

Going into this biography, I was a bit apprehensive as the last biography I read by Brands took me over two years to finish. And considering that the biography I read on John Quincy Adams earlier this year took me over five months to complete from start to finish, I ended up putting this one off for a bit. But once I started this one, I flew through it in three weeks and probably would have read it in even less time if I hadn't gotten sick right in the middle of reading it. 

Andrew Jackson: His Life and Times was published at the end of 2005 and was written by Henry William Brands, Jr. who has authored 30 books on U.S. history and has been a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize twice. This biography on Jackson was engaging, fluent, and highly readable, and I truly enjoyed it from beginning to end. 

This was due largely in part to the fact that Andrew Jackson is far and away the most colorful and entertaining president I've read about yet. Born in the colonial Carolinas to his recently widowed mother, Jackson's entire life can be summed up in one word: struggle. As a boy during the Revolutionary War, he took a saber to the head after refusing to clean the boots of a commanding British officer. His mother died when he was only 14 leaving him an orphan, and after he ended up on the wild frontier of Tennessee, he apprenticed himself to a lawyer and managed to pass the bar with no real formal education or training. He dabbled in teaching, law, politics, speculation, and numerous other business ventures until he finally realized his true calling as a military leader. Leading the Tennessee militia and eventually becoming the U.S. commanding general of the southwest, he led raids against hostile Indian settlements, autonomously went into Spanish-ruled Florida to protect U.S. borders, and was the hero of New Orleans in the War of 1812. His soldiers viewed him as a father figure and affectionately called him "Old Hickory" and the Indians respected his military prowess and dubbed him "Sharp Knife". It was particularly fun to read about his military exploits as men such as Davy Crockett and Sam Houston served under him. 

When it came to his political career, he couldn't stand his time as a congressman or senator and didn't complete his terms. After having to make decisive life and death decisions in war and being respected as a military commander, it drove him crazy to sit in Washington listening to a topic debated for weeks on end with no real resolution. But he loved his country and when he felt that duty demanded something of him, he rose to the occasion. In the election of 1824 against John Quincy Adams, his widespread popularity made him a desirable candidate for those in Washington who didn't want an Adams presidency and he nearly won the election despite being a latecomer and not initially having thought about being president. By the end of that election however, he was determined to be president and four years later, he rode that wave of popularity easily into the White House. He truly was the first man of the people to be elected and his presidency gave rise to the Democratic Party. 

Some of the big issues Jackson dealt with during his two-term presidency included reform, nullification, the veto of the national bank, Indian removal policy, and the annexation of Texas. While Jackson certainly wasn't perfect and sometimes operated from a mistaken perception, he was never less than sincere and didn't let personal criticism sway him from doing what he believed to be right. Another big shift in reading about our nation's seventh president was that the issues of his presidency were largely domestic after so many years of struggling to create the United States and facing so much international conflict as a result of that. 

In his personal life, Jackson met and married Rachel Donelson Robards in Tennessee under dubious circumstances. Rachel was already married to someone else who was abusive and subject to jealous fits of rage. While Rachel and her first husband were separated and because a divorce was very hard to come by in those days, she and Jackson were living together as husband and wife before it was technically legal for them to do so. This was not uncommon on the frontier, and Jackson and Rachel were eventually married legally but the questionable beginnings of their relationship came back to haunt Jackson during the 1828 election when opponents dragged Rachel through the mud on a national scale causing her so much duress that she died before Jackson's inauguration. Jackson was fiercely devoted to Rachel their entire marriage and nearly didn't go to the White House after her demise. 

Andrew and Rachel for whatever reason didn't have any biological children, and they ended up adopting their nephew and two small Indian boys left orphaned during the many conflicts on the frontier. Even though Andrew was a stern and exacting military commander, he was tender with children and women and wouldn't hear a lady disgraced in his presence. 

I mean, really, I could go on and on. As I mentioned earlier, of course Andrew Jackson wasn't perfect and I don't agree with everything he ever did, but I identified with him more strongly than any other president I've read about so far and when I got to the point of his death in the book, I actually got a little choked up. However much this has to do with the fact that my dad is a native Tennessean and has taken us to the Hermitage, I still appreciated Jackson's politics, and he was the kind of man I can respect and admire. It's very easy to look back at our founders and other early politicians and do a bit of Monday morning quarterbacking from our current place in history, but when you look at the big picture, Jackson was the first president who was the true champion of the people and advocated government by the people—not just the wealthy, landed class but all the people. 

I have to commend Brands one more time on this biography. It was cogent, comprehensive without being exhausting, and the way he contextualized the events of Jackson's life in the bigger picture of what was going on nationally and globally was excellent. A true pleasure to read especially compared to his dense biography of Theodore Roosevelt. Any desire or project of reading through the presidents aside, this is a biography I would recommend on its own merit. It was entertaining and a thorough glimpse of history during the lifetime of Andrew Jackson.

I have another book on Jackson I plan to read this year, but next year it's on to Martin Van Buren and Old Tippecanoe! Have you read any particularly stellar biographies on any of the U.S. presidents? Do you have a favorite president or period of history that you love to read about?

Let's Bust a Recap : Having a Mary Heart in a Martha World

Alright, I'm just going to say it: I loved this book. This book is easily in my top five favorite books for 2020 and certainly my favorite nonfiction book for the year. 

Having a Mary Heart in a Martha World by Joanna Weaver was originally published in the summer of 2000 and is an invitation for every woman who's ever felt she isn't godly enough, isn't loving enough, isn't doing enough to slow down and find intimacy with God in the busyness of life. 

And in September of 2020, this book was a balm for my weary soul. 

Using the familiar story of busy Martha and adoring Mary, Joanna Weaver jumps off into deep Scriptural truths about God's love and care, our call to serve, the cure for our anxiety, and balancing worship with work. Spinning old stories with personal experiences, Scripture with quotes from great authors, Weaver brings every detail together in a quiet, lyrical summons to experience the mystery of sanctification with grace and wonder. Her writing reminded me very much of Robin Jones Gunn so you can imagine my delight when I realized that Robin and Joanna are friends and Joanna even shares a practical tip from Robin in this book about how to create space for personal worship in your daily routine. 

The thing I probably appreciated most about this book was the sweet balance Weaver emphasizes throughout. It seems in some contemporary Christian lit I've read, authors have a tendency to swing to one of two extremes: either there is a disturbing disregard for service in the guise of "taking care of ourselves" or there is a call to extreme service leaving the reader feeling an overwhelming obligation to participate in a frantic frenzy of activities to advance the Kingdom. In Having a Mary Heart in a Martha World, Weaver focuses on obeying Christ with our whole beings, coming to fill up at His table which should propel us outward in Christlike service of others. She reminds us of the truth that sanctification is a work of God that requires faithful obedience from us. It's something we can't accomplish in our own power, but we are called to work it out. It's a beautiful mystery. And instead of feeling inadequate to understand it or deflated at the constant one-step-forward-two-steps-back of my life, after reading this book I was reminded of God's irresistible grace and kindness and my small but sure place in His grand story. I mean, really, I could just cry thinking about it.

This is without question a book I will read again. And again and again. I'm so grateful that after years sitting unread on my shelf, it came to me in the midst of the madness of 2020. God is good. 

What book has encouraged you this year? 

Let's Bust a Recap : Eleanor Oliphant Is Completely Fine

Eleanor Oliphant Is Completely Fine shot onto the scene in 2017 scooping up awards left and right and popping up on a whole passel of must-read lists. Normally, a book this new wouldn't even be a blip on my radar, but after joining the #bookstagram at the end of 2018 and being a general fan of skimming over must-read lists, this one kept crossing my path. When people were still raving about it at the beginning of this year, I happened upon a copy at my favorite spot (you know the place) and promptly purchased it. But instead of bringing it home to languish on my shelves for an indeterminate amount of time as is my usual MO when I bring home a new stack of contemporary fiction, I ended up reading it right away. And I'm glad. Because it was great.

Debut novel of Scottish writer Gail Honeyman, Eleanor Oliphant Is Completely Fine was actually published after Honeyman submitted the first three chapters to a competition for unpublished fiction by female writers. In it, we meet 29 year old social misfit Eleanor who always says exactly what she thinks and spends her weekends alone eating frozen pizza and downing a couple bottles of vodka. After attending a local concert, she decides that she's meant to be with the lead singer of the band and begins a process of self-transformation. As Honeyman weaves together this story around themes of isolation, loneliness, friendship, and kindness, we wonder about Eleanor's mysterious past and how she has come to be where she is. 

NPR.org describes Eleanor Oliphant Is Completely Fine as "deadpan, heartbreaking, and humorous all at once" and that description is dead on the money. I fell in love with Eleanor pretty quickly and was heartbroken over how she seemed to miss the mark on connecting with people even while chuckling at her total bluntness. I was a fan of any person who reached past her awkwardness to show her kindness. And I was rooting for Eleanor to be more than just fine, for her to make the human connection and thrive. When we finally learn the truth about Eleanor's life in a twist I did not see coming, I even more earnestly wanted her to discover the good things in life and come out stronger. 

Altogether an excellent novel, well-written and engaging throughout. I highly recommend it. Fair warning: there is a bit of rude language scattered throughout, if that's something that puts you off, but I personally thought it fit the circumstances and characters and was hardly gratuitous or shocking. I'm really impressed that this was Honeyman's debut novel in a field it seems she never planned on entering. She managed to write a very heavy story with a measure of quirky wit and lightness that made it a pleasure to read even as you cringed at the trauma of it. Well done. 

Several people compared Honeyman's Eleanor Oliphant Is Completely Fine to Fredrik Backman's A Man Called Ove which was on my 2019 book list, but which I still haven't read. So now I'm even more anxious to get to that one sooner rather than later. (Although as I mentioned on Monday, I have a few more books I want to prioritize this year so I probably won't get to Ove until next year.) Have you read either of these books and did you connect to Eleanor or Ove? Do you keep up with all the hot new releases or do you wait to see if a book is going to stick around like I do?

Let's Bust a Recap : Being Known

Well, it's November 9th and even though 2020 has felt like it would never end in some ways, in other ways it has flown by just like any other year. Blogging has gone a little bit better this year than it did in 2019, but as it stands I have nine finished books waiting to be recapped, three books I'm currently reading, at least five other books I'd like to read by the end of 2020, and only about eight weeks left until New Years Eve. If you do the math on that it equals impossible, but let's give it the old college try, shall we?

Starting with this sweet new release that I read back in April. Yes, we're still catching up on books from the first half of the year. If memory serves, Being Known by Robin Jones Gunn was released April 28th, and, as I usually do with a new book by Mrs. Gunn, I promptly snatched it out of my mailbox as soon as our mail lady dropped it off and sat down to read it. Being Known is the second book in Gunn's new Haven Makers Series, and this novel focuses on Jennalyn's life. In the first book entitled Becoming Us (which was released last May) we meet a group of women who determine to prioritize their friendships with one another and end up becoming (get it?) a close-knit group of kindred spirits who help and encourage each other through the different joys and trials they encounter. If you're familiar with Robin Jones Gunn's work (which I am...intimately), two of the characters are already old friends: Christy and Sierra. Becoming Us focused in on Emily's life who had just recently moved to the Southern California area. In that book, Jennalyn was the instigator of the small group and in this book, we travel with her as she continues to process the grief of her mother's death.

Even though Jennalyn's mother has been gone for six years at the start of Being Known, the grief hits her in a new and overwhelming way as she settles in to life as a mother of two with a husband who is working a lot. In her vulnerability, she finds herself opening up to an old boyfriend that she bumps into who also has lots of fond memories of her mom.

Not only was this novel about intentional friendship so timely during the height of lockdowns and social distancing, it navigated the murky waters of social media relationships in such a real and grace-full way. I found myself sympathizing with Jennalyn and her struggle to discern wise boundaries, and rooting for her to open herself up to her friends' caring counsel and confide in the best people to help her through her grief. I so appreciate Robin Jones Gunn's ability to write these stories that address the issues we face today as friends—whether married, single, mothers, or without children—seeking to honor God in all our relationships. 

I'm also thankful for my real life DOEs who send me "Oh My, Cherry Pie" nail polish in the mail and come over for a middle-school style slumber party bash when our grown-up plans for a Girls' Weekend Away (that we'd been planning for a year) got cancelled due to corona. God blessed in the midst of the turmoil this year with not just an encouraging new book by my favorite author, but with true friends who have fleshed out the sweet relationships pictured in those books I love. 

~April 2020~

Looking forward to the next book in the Haven Makers Series. None have been announced as of yet, but I'm hoping we'll get a book from Tess's point of view soon!

What have you found to be thankful for during the year of corona?

Pumpkin Carving 2020

It's the end of another month, we're getting tantalizingly close to the end of this insane year, and I have nine books sitting in a stack in my book nook waiting to be blogged about. (One from April still!) But it's Halloween and that means forget the books: it's time for our annual pumpkin carving post!

This year's venture turned into a family affair and we had a beautifully sunny Florida day to carve our pumpkins. 

~ready to go~

~three nieces joining in~

~scooping out the guts : always the most fun part~

~carving in progress~

This year, Cody thought doing a "Welcome" pumpkin would be particularly appropriate so that any trick-or-treaters would know to stop by our house, and I opted for some ghosts steaming up from a witch's cauldron. I loved how both our pumpkins turned out.

Our cutie nieces went for classic faces and with a little help from mom and dad pulled off some funny, friendly pumpkins. 

We had all the fun.

Happy Halloween!

October 31, 2020

A Word for Wednesday

 "It remains certainly true that all natural loves can be inordinate.

Inordinate does not mean 'insufficiently cautious.' Nor does it mean 'too big.'

It is not a quantitative term.

It is probably impossible to love any human being simply 'too much.'

We may love him too much in proportion to our love for God;

but it is the smallness of our love for God, 

not the greatness of our love for the man,

that constitutes the inordinacy."

~from The Four Loves by C.S. Lewis~

A Word for Wednesday

 "Christ did not teach and suffer that we might become, 

even in the natural loves, 

more careful of our own happiness. 

If a man is not uncalculating towards the earthly beloveds whom he has seen, 

he is none the more likely to be so towards God whom he has not. 

We shall draw nearer to God, 

not by trying to avoid the sufferings inherent in all loves, 

but by accepting them and offering them to Him; throwing away all defensive armour. 

If our hearts need to be broken, 

and if He chooses this as the way in which they should break, 

so be it."

~from The Four Loves by C.S. Lewis~

Michelangelo's Pietá

A Word for Wednesday

 "I have no duty to be anyone's Friend and no man in the world has a duty to be mine. 

No claims, no shadow of necessity. 

Friendship is unnecessary, 

like philosophy, like art, like the universe itself (for God did not need to create). 

It has no survival value; rather it is one of those things which give value to survival."

~from The Four Loves by C.S. Lewis~