Let's Bust a Recap : Ballet Shoes

Okay, you guys, I've wanted to read the Shoe Books ever since 1998 when I first saw You've Got Mail which is one of my all time favorite movies to this day. In the movie, Kathleen Kelly's little Shop Around the Corner has just closed and she makes her way to the children's section in Fox Books. A frazzled mom comes in looking for the "Shoe Books" and Kathleen Kelly proceeds to tell the clueless sales associate everything he needs to know to find the books. Click here to watch the scene. It's a gem.

I've never been able to find the books but in 2018, they got a makeover and were republished by Random House Children's Books. I immediately added the four books mentioned in You've Got Mail to my amazon wishlist and my sweet husband (ever my book-enabler) got them for me for my birthday last year. It was a no-brainer for a Shoe Book to have a slot on my 2020 book list, and naturally I had to follow Kathleen Kelly's advice to start with Ballet Shoes (her favorite). 

And the flawless Kathleen Kelly did not lead me astray. I enjoyed every charming second with this lovely children's novel.

Ballet Shoes by Noel Streatfeild was originally published in 1936 by J.M. Dent & Sons. It was Streatfeild's first book for children, and since its publication it has been adapted twice for the screen and also been included on BBC's list of the 100 Most Inspiring Novels. In it, we are introduced to Pauline, Petrova, and Posy Fossil; three adopted sisters who were each discovered as babies by Great-Uncle-Matthew (lovingly referred to as "Gum") and sent back home to his niece Sylvia who raises them with the help of her childhood nanny, Nana. When Gum doesn't return home from his expedition abroad in the promised five years, Sylvia falls into financial hardship and decides to take on boarders to help make ends meet. One of the boarders helps Sylvia arrange to have the girls enrolled in the Children's Academy of Dancing and Stage Training so that they can learn a skill that will help provide for themselves and the household. 

I loved every minute. The girls' unique personalities and talents, their relationships with the boarders who become like family, the lessons they learn; with each turn of the page I couldn't stop smiling. Highly recommend you give this one a look and then just for fun, go watch You've Got Mail. I can't wait for my next Shoe Book. (Next in publication order would be Theater Shoes, but I'm tempted to skip ahead to Skating Shoes as that's the other one Kathleen Kelly particularly loves.)

Have you read any of the Shoe Books? Have you ever been inspired to read something just because it was mentioned in a movie or TV show you were enjoying?

Let's Bust a Recap : Sisterchicks Down Under!

Happy Monday! I decided to start this new week off with the book that's been waiting the longest to be recapped. (Well, technically that's not true. I still want to write a recap for A Tree Grows in Brooklyn which I read last year, but this one's been waiting the longest in 2020 so we'll count it.) I read this book back in April between Maisie Dobbs and Charlotte's Web and it's just been sitting at the bottom of the stack of my finished books while others keep piling on top. 

I know I say it every time I mention Robin Jones Gunn, but she's one of my very favorite authors and I always turn to her when I need a pick-me-up. Not just in the sense that things are crazy and I want to read something easy, but more because I know I'll be encouraged and refreshed when I read something she's written. And Sisterchicks Down Under! was no exception.

Sisterchicks Down Under! was published in 2005 and is the fourth book in the Sisterchicks series which consist of eight standalone novels. It's also the fourth one that I've read, and this one definitely had a different tone. It's the first one I've read that wasn't set up as a girlfriend getaway. In Sisterchicks Down Under!, Kathleen and her husband pack up and fly off to New Zealand for a short-term job opportunity that her husband has been offered. Even though Kathleen is initially excited for the opportunity, upon arrival she finds that more than her geography has flip-flopped and she has a harder time embracing the adventure than she anticipated. Through a series of God-things, she ends up meeting another California girl and they instantly become sisterchicks and take a fun trip together to Australia. 

Reading this one during the height of all the initial drama and unknowns with COVID-19 was a sweet reminder to make the best of the circumstances God has placed us in and look for ways to connect with others, even when it might seem more appealing to hole up and wallow. 

Another home run from my favorite author; no surprise. Pretty soon I'll be recapping her most recently published novel Being Known (which I also read in April) so be on the lookout for that!

Do you have certain books or authors that you turn to when life gets to be a bit too much? Have you found any new favorites during this pandemic pandemonium?

Let's Bust a Recap : This Momentary Marriage

Y'all. We have a lot of books by John Piper. But confession time: I had never finished a single one of them until this week. I read some of Don't Waste Your Life in high school, and I've started Desiring God at least twice (without making it past the first chapter), but for some reason, he's an author I've just kept putting off. 

After reading This Momentary Marriage, I may need to add Piper to the very small list of authors who automatically get a slot on my yearly book lists. FYI: the only three who currently have that honor are C.S. Lewis, William Shakespeare, and Charles Dickens; and the only two I've actually read yearly with any consistency are Lewis and Shakespeare.

This Momentary Marriage by John Piper was on my very first official book list way back in 2015, but, like I said, I kept putting it off and Piper hasn't made it onto any of my book lists since...until 2020. 

And this book came to me at just the time I needed it. Cody and I celebrated our eighth anniversary this past May, and while I would marry him all over again in a heartbeat, 2020 has been one big ball of crazy and I was extremely blessed and challenged by this reminder that marriage is the doing of God and the meaning of marriage is the display of the covenant-keeping love between Christ and His people. What a sobering thought. That's much bigger than me and Cody and how we feel on any given day.

John Piper has been putting books out almost yearly since the '80s and this particular one was published in 2009. It consists of fifteen chapters, comes in at just under 200 pages, and it is very straightforward. Piper's writing in This Momentary Marriage is clear and if you haven't gotten his point by the end of the book then you weren't paying attention. I was hooked from page one of the foreword by his wife Noël, and I read the book in one week because I deliberately limited myself to two chapters a day so I could absorb it. I easily could have read this book in a day.

Piper not only writes to married couples in this book; two chapters are dedicated to singles and he covers the topic of divorce as well. I truly would recommend this book to anyone. I think it would be helpful no matter what stage of life you're in or no matter how long you've been married. Piper says in his acknowledgements: "I waited forty years to write this book. There have been so many stresses in our marriage that I felt unfit to write about marriage at ten, twenty, or thirty years into it. Now at forty years, I realize we will never have it all together, so it seemed a good time to speak." None of us will ever have it all together this side of Heaven, but reading books like this sure do help along the way.

"As you gave the ring to one another 

and have now received it a second time from the hand of the pastor, 

so love comes from you, but marriage from above, from God. 

As high as God is above man, 

so high are the sanctity, the rights, and the promise of love. 

It is not your love that sustains the marriage, 

but from now on, the marriage that sustains your love."

~Dietrich Bonhoeffer~

Let's Bust a Recap : Cymbeline

Time for some more Shakespeare! And apparently I'm only blogging every other month this year. Seems par for the course with 2020. 

For the past five years or so, I've been reading a Shakespearean comedy in February and a tragedy in August. This year's pick for August was Cymbeline, and even though it is classified as a tragedy in the First Folio it's definitely not one and modern critics often classify it as a romance or even a comedy. I think it solidly lands in the "romance" category, and it was a pleasant change of pace to read a play where the people you hated actually died and the people you liked (or at least you didn't completely despise) finally got their happily ever after. 

We open to find two unnamed gentlemen setting the stage for us which is basically this: King Cymbeline's daughter Imogen has essentially flipped him the bird by marrying the love of her life (one Posthumus Leonatus—bless his heart—that the king raised and loved as a son, by the way) instead of acquiescing to the king's plans for her to marry Cloten (a total loser who happens to be the king's stepson). So naturally Cymbeline banishes Posthumus from Britain and tells his daughter she can go to H-E-double-hockeysticks for all he cares about her feelings. 

Oh and also Cymbeline has two sons who were kidnapped as small children because why not?

Once the two gentlemen have given us this little history of our main characters, the queen and Imogen and Posthumus enter and we realize Imogen is about to say her farewells to Posthumus. The queen is all, "I'm not your typical wicked stepmother; let's be pals" and Imogen is all, "I can't live without you; my dad's the worst for banishing you" and Posthumus is all, "I'll always be true; write me constantly and wear this bracelet forever." 

Posthumus takes himself off to Rome where he immediately makes himself obnoxious by bragging about his gorgeous, faithful bride to anyone who will listen. He catches the attention of one Iachimo who bets him 10,000 pieces of gold that he can bed Imogen no problem at which point Posthumus is like, "Go for it, bro."

Meanwhile back home in Britain, we find out that the queen actually is your typical wicked stepmother and is planning to kill Imogen to secure her son's right to the throne. She hits up the local doc to hook her up with some poison, but the doctor (and everyone else) can see right through her and sets her up with some brew that will for sure knock you out but definitely won't kill you and goes on about his business. The queen then passes along the potion to Pisanio (the loyal servant of Posthumus who has stayed in Britain to attend Imogen) hyping it as the best Tylenol ever and feeling pretty confident that both Pisanio and Imogen will take it and die.

By this time, Iachimo has shown up in Britain ready to get jiggy with Imogen and carrying a letter from Posthumus introducing him as this great guy. Just so, you know, Imogen has no suspicions about his intentions. He starts coming on to Imogen like it's his job (which, I mean, I guess it kindof is since he's got skin in the game), but Imogen is all, "Kick rocks, scumbag." Iachimo starts backpedaling faster than the speed of light and goes off monologuing about lucky Posthumus for bagging such a worthy chick and how amazing Imogen is for proving everything and more that Posthumus ever said about her. At which point, Imogen is like, "Cool, bro, you're alright" and Iachimo is like, "Would you mind safeguarding a trunk of my crap?" and Imogen's like, "What are friends for?" 

Um, what?! And that was all Act I.

Later that night, Imogen's asleep in her private chamber with Iachimo's trunk nearby for safety when out of the trunk comes Iachimo himself because he is not about to lose 10,000 pieces of gold over this dame. He leers over her like the major creep he is (noting a distinct mole in a place that only a lover should know about) and steals her precious bracelet right off her arm, then climbs back into the trunk for the rest of the night. 

Gross.

Outside Imogen's bedchamber, Cloten is pulling a John Cusack in Say Anything when the king and queen walk up. Cloten's complaining that Imogen isn't giving him the time of day and Cymbeline is like, "Give it time, son. You'll get her eventually." 

Seriously?? Worst. Dad. Ever.

Imogen finally deigns to come out of her room and Cloten is like, "I really, really love you so like, can we just get together already?" to which Imogen replies, "I actually hate you and you're not even good enough to lick Posthumus' shoes." 

Back in Rome, Iachimo has produced enough "evidence" to convince Posthumus that Imogen is not all that he thought she was, and he sends off a letter to Pisanio ordering him to kill that whore ASAP.

Seems harsh, man. But let's get back to Britain.

Out of nowhere, an ambassador from Rome named Caius Lucius shows up and is all, "Hey, you owe us your annual tribute" and Cymbeline is all, "You ain't gettin' a dime outta me" and Caius Lucius is like, "We will fight you" to which Cymbeline responds, "Bring it."

By this time, Pisanio has gotten the letter from Posthumus along with a letter he is to give to Imogen telling her that Posthumus wants her to come to him at Milford for a little lovers' getaway. 

Because why ask Imogen—the woman he loves, the woman he's known his entire life—for her side of the story? Instead, let's let her think everything is business as usual and make my servant do my dirty work. Seems logical. Real mature, Posthumus.

Pisanio and Imogen head off on their little trip, but halfway there, Pisanio is like, "We need to talk." He tells Imogen about the contents of his letter and that Posthumus is setting her up for her death. But Pisanio (the real MVP of this play) is not about to shed Imogen's perfectly innocent blood and instead concocts a plan for Imogen to disguise herself as a man and run away.

Because would this even be Shakespeare if there wasn't a little cross-dressing involved?

Pisanio heads back to Britain where Cymbeline, the queen, and Cloten are all in a dither because Imogen has run away. Cloten demands that Pisanio bring him some of Posthumus' old clothes because he's had enough of the cold shoulder; he's going to dress up like Posthumus, go find Imogen, and have his way with her whatever it takes. He doesn't really need Posthumus' clothes for this plan, but Cloten has a weird clothing fetish all throughout the play.

In the meantime, Imogen has been wandering around a forest, dressed like a boy, and stumbles into the cave where her two long-lost brothers have been living with their kidnapper (who they believe to be their father) their whole lives.

How convenient.

They all love each other immediately (even though none of them have the slightest idea who they are) and they decide the new guy needs some food pronto because he's looking ready to pass out from hunger. So Arviragus stays with Imogen (who's going by "Fidele"), and Guiderius goes out to hunt. 

While he's out hunting, he comes across Cloten wandering around the forest looking for Imogen. In typical Cloten fashion, he manages to insult this complete stranger to such a degree that Guiderius swiftly cuts off his head.

Belarius (the kidnapper) recognizes Cloten and is like, "We're all gonna die." But Guiderius is like, "Whatever, I'd do it again, that guy was a tool."

Back in the cave, Imogen decided to take the Tylenol that Pisanio gave her before they parted ways. (Remember, this was the potion that the queen got from the doctor that's supposed to be deadly, but isn't actually.) So upon the return of Guiderius and Belarius, Arviragus is carrying Imogen out thinking she's dead as a doornail. The three of them lay Imogen next to Cloten's headless body and sing a dirge in honor of Imogen (which is actually one of the most beautiful pieces I've read by Shakespeare) and then go off to fight for Britain in the mounting war against Rome. 

A little while later, Imogen wakes up and sees a headless body dressed in Posthumus' clothes lying next to her. Obviously, she gets a little upset. Caius Lucius and some other Romans ride up to this scene and she agrees to go along with them as their servant boy. (She's still dressed as a boy and going by the name Fidele.)

Then there's some fighting, and Posthumus ends up rescuing Cymbeline, and then Posthumus has a weird dream, and Britain ends up beating Rome, and everyone goes back to the king's palace so we can sort out this mess.

First of all, the doctor reports that the queen died in a mad fit and before dying she confessed to the doctor and her ladies in waiting that she only married the king so she could get her son the throne. To which Cymbeline basically says, "Well, she was hot so....WORTH IT." 

Iachimo (who is there with Caius Lucius and Imogen and some other Romans) suddenly grows a conscience and confesses his whole drama with Imogen and Posthumus at which point Posthumus is like, "You lied?! And I ordered the death of my wife because of you???" But then Imogen comes forward and is all, "No harm, no foul. I'm here. We're good."

And then Belarius steps up to the mic and is like, "I know you banished me, but look, here are your two sons that I kidnapped and raised and took care of, and I fought for you pretty valiantly in this skirmish with the Romans so let's all be friends." 

And then a soothsayer comes forward and spouts off a bunch of stuff, and Cymbeline decides that even though Britain beat Rome, he's had a change of heart and they'll pay the tribute after all.

And they all live happily ever after.

I mean, wow. If I could change anything: Iachimo would get what was coming to him, and Posthumus would at least have gotten a good combing down from Imogen, but all in all I loved it.

This play was definitely involved. While I was reading this, I couldn't help but get the feeling that Shakespeare just took all his favorite parts from all the plays he had ever written and kindof mashed them up into this one and said, "Here you go, world." Cymbeline is one of the last plays he wrote just a few years before he died. I really did enjoy it though, and I thought that everything was pretty important to the story whereas with some of Shakespeare's work, there are side stories happening that I don't really care about. Maybe not Shakespeare's greatest work of all time, but definitely one I'd still recommend for a good time. 

Have you read Cymbeline or seen it performed? As usual, feel free to nominate your favorites for next year's book list. I'm thinking Troilus and Cressida for my tragedy, but I'm not sure about my comedy yet. Merry Wives of Windsor? The Comedy of Errors? What would you recommend?

Let's Bust a Recap : Charlotte's Web

Charlotte's Web is another of those stories with which I was very familiar, but (to my shame) had never actually read for myself. It's also the third children's novel I've read this year that made me genuinely sorry I hadn't read it sooner (the first two being A Little Princess by Frances Hodgson Burnett and Tuck Everlasting by Natalie Babbitt). I grew up with the 1973 animated film adaptation which I loved as a kid. I haven't seen it in years, and I totally forgot it was a musical until I looked it up for this post. I also saw the 2006 live action adaptation a few years ago and immediately bought it because it was so sweet. I finally snagged a copy of the actual book at The Book Shelter a couple years ago, and it sat neglected on my shelf until my niece came over one day with her copy and announced she would be reading it. Naturally, I had to join her.

Charlotte's Web by Elwyn Brooks White was first published in October of 1952. It's won a load of awards including the Newbery and is on pretty much every list of best loved novels you can imagine. It's a teacher favorite and in a 2012 survey of School Library Journal readers, it was voted #1 out of the "Top 100 Chapter Books" of all time. The librarian conducting the survey said it would be impossible for Charlotte's Web not to be #1. E.B. White himself won a special Pulitzer Prize in 1978 for his full body of work and the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1963. However, he was terribly shy and hated publicity and was known to sneak out of his office via his fire escape to avoid visitors which is a fact I just absolutely love about him.

Charlotte's Web is the story of a little pig named Wilbur and his remarkable friend Charlotte A. Cavatica who happens to be a spider. After being born the runt of his litter, Wilbur is rescued by Fern Arable who pleads with her father not to kill the tiny piglet. After five weeks of pampering from Fern, he goes to live on the Zuckerman farm down the road where he befriends Charlotte (and a whole barnyard full of animals) who becomes so fond of him that she promises to save him from becoming the Christmas ham and proceeds to spin words describing Wilbur into her web creating a sensation and finally landing him at the County Fair.

I love this dear story. As Eudora Welty put it: "What the book is about is friendship on earth, affection and protection, adventure and miracle, life and death, trust and treachery, pleasure and pain, and the passing of time. As a piece of work it is just about perfect, and just about magical in the way it is done." I can't describe it any better than that. Its sweetness is only enhanced by the sketches of Garth Williams throughout its pages, and the 2006 adaptation featuring the voice of Julia Roberts as Charlotte is equally delightful. It's a can't miss, and I highly recommend you read it at least once in your life—sooner rather than later.

Have you read Charlotte's Web? What is your favorite book from childhood?

Let's Bust a Recap : James Herriot's Treasury for Children

Three blog posts in one week? Well that's a first for 2020. I read James Herriot's Treasury for Children aloud to the little boy I nanny over a couple weeks this month, and it was an absolute delight. 

James Herriot is actually the pen name of James Alfred Wight who was a British veterinary surgeon in Yorkshire where he practiced for almost 50 years. At the time, veterinary surgeons were discouraged from writing under their own names to avoid seeming like they were advertising for their practices. He was a big-time soccer fan and actually chose James Herriot as his pen name after seeing Scottish goalkeeper Jim Herriot play for Birmingham City F.C. in a televised game against Manchester United F.C.

His work is partially autobiographical including his eight books for children which have all been included in this treasury. Most of the stories set in the fictional town of Darrowby are based on real events he experienced in his time as a country vet. 

Wight also wrote a series for adults which were originally published in the UK and then collected into three omnibus volumes (All Creatures Great and Small, All Things Bright and Beautiful, and All Things Wise and Wonderful) and published in the US where they were wildly successful. My mom read and loved them as a teenager in the 70s (when they were published) and I actually have her old copies, though I have yet to read them. 

I was given a paperback copy of his children's book The Christmas Day Kitten when I was very young and always loved the sweet story and beautiful illustrations, so when this treasury caught my eye a year or two ago in my Friends of the Library bookstore, I had to have it (especially when I realized they priced it at only $2!).

As it turns out, all his stories are just as sweet as The Christmas Day Kitten (which is one of the eight included in this treasury) and I actually ended up loving some of the other stories even more. The little boy I nanny loved Moses the Kitten best and every day wanted to read about the tiny black kitten that thought he was a piglet. I loved all the stories but especially Bonny's Big Day and Blossom Comes Home. Possibly my favorite aspect of this treasury are the beautiful illustrations by Ruth Brown. (Peter Barrett illustrated two of the eight stories and his illustrations are also wonderful, but Ruth Brown's were definitely my favorite.)

I would highly recommend James Herriot's Treasury for Children particularly if you're an animal lover or have kids who love animals. The stories are the perfect length for reading aloud (not too long that your kids lose interest but complete enough for you to enjoy with them) and—I have to say it again—the illustrations are lovely. 

Have you read anything (for children or grown-ups) by James Herriot? Who is one of your favorite illustrators? 

Let's Bust a Recap : The Count of Monte Cristo

Well, the day has finally come. I'm going to try to put my thoughts together into a coherent post recapping The Count of Monte Cristo. I read this hunk of a novel last year, and it took me four solid months to do it. I started it at the beginning of June and made it to the end on the last day of September. When I finally finished it, I felt a bit lost. I had been reading it nearly every day for four months and was so fully wrapped up in the story that when it ended, I didn't quite know what to do with myself. 

I loved this story. Unlike The Three Musketeers by Dumas, The Count of Monte Cristo hooked me from page one and nearly every single detail was vital to the plot. Most translated editions of The Count of Monte Cristo are abridged and after reading the unabridged version, I'm really not sure how. The only part of the book that I thought could have done with a bit of editing was Luigi Vampa's complicated backstory. But I digress.

The film adaptation of The Count of Monte Cristo starring Jim Caviezel is one of my all time favorite movies and has been for several years. Up until last year, it was one of my secret bookish shames that I had never read the novel that inspired the movie. But have you seen the novel? It's huge. It definitely intimidated me. Because I've seen the movie approximately 534 times, and because I really invested a lot of time in reading the novel, I'm going to be comparing them and in doing so, I'll be discussing some major plot points that are definitely spoilers so if you don't want to know, this is your cue to exit. 

So for a quick overview: The Count of Monte Cristo is the story of Edmond Dantes' wrongful imprisonment (literally hours before his wedding to the beautiful Mercedes) and subsequent escape from the Chateau d'If. He then amasses an insane fortune that his prison mate the Abbe Faria told him the location of before his death, and then uses it to exact revenge on the three men (Fernand, Danglars, & Villefort) responsible for his incarceration.

The first major departure from the novel as depicted in the film is that the adaptation sets Edmond and Fernand up as best friends from the time they were young. In the film's version, Fernand is rich and privileged and jealous of Edmond's happiness despite his relative poverty. He's really eaten up over the fact that Mercedes is in love with Edmond, and ends up getting kind of roped into Danglars' plan to frame Edmond during a drunken fit.

In the novel, Edmond and Fernand do not give one flying rip about each other and Fernand is just as poor as Edmond but infatuated with Mercedes. He basically is just a tool of Danglars to frame Edmond, and, in my opinion, the least culpable of the three because he's just not very bright. 

Danglars is motivated to ruin Edmond because of his jealousy over Edmond's rapid success in their mutual career as merchant sailors. Danglars is the greediest, most ridiculous character of the novel and Dumas' portrayal of him is hilariously scathing. In the movie, Danglars really doesn't get much development past his initial involvement in the plot to sabotage Edmond, and that is truly a shame.

Villefort doesn't even know who Edmond is but when he recovers a letter Edmond was given by Napoleon Bonaparte addressed to Villefort's own father, he quickly destroys the letter and sentences Edmond to life in the Chateau d'If to protect his own political interests. This was actually portrayed perfectly in the film.

The thing that the film does not and could not possibly do is develop the multitude of characters and Edmond's meticulous and complicated plot of revenge. Or as he sees it, justice. Throughout the course of the novel, Edmond has several aliases and his revenge is a years long con on these men, much more than a matter of a few weeks or months as the movie might lead you to believe. He learns every intimate detail of their lives and their families' lives and employs all this information and his considerable fortune to bring each of these men to complete ruin. He drives Fernand to suicide after decimating his reputation, he bankrupts Danglars and has him begging for food which is the ultimate punishment for that sleazeball, and he literally drives Villefort insane in the most chilling and masterful plot of revenge I have ever heard of. 

four months : this book made it into a lot of photos

The novel obviously does a better job at developing the complexities of Edmond as well. As vicious and exacting as he is with the men who destroyed his life, he's as loving and solicitous of the people he deems worthy or feels indebted to. When his revenge is coming to the ultimate climax, he has to confront the fact that innocent people have been hurt as a result of his all-consuming crusade, and he wrestles with the morality of his actions. 

One thing I'll say: the movie and the novel both end somewhat abruptly each in their own ways, and to be honest, I don't necessarily prefer one over the other. Both endings play with their corresponding forms, but ultimately, they both leave me wanting more. 

Overall, I would highly recommend the book and the film. The novel is a masterpiece in its own right, and the movie is just plain good. Having been so intimately familiar with the movie gave me a good foundation with the major characters, and I really didn't have much trouble keeping everyone straight which seems to be the commonly held problem people have when reading the novel. The Count of Monte Cristo will certainly take an investment of your time to read, but in the end, I really think it's worth it.

Have you read The Count of Monte Cristo or seen the film starring Jim Caviezel? What book has taken you the biggest investment of time to read and was it worth it?