Books I've Read... Books I'm Reading

Having mined the water on our family farm, we are hoping to reap the wind. I've read and am continuing to read much about wind energy and wind farm contracts. Windustry.org is one good place to start.

Wright, N.T.: Surprised by Hope. Rethinking Heaven, the Resurrection, and the Mission of the Church, Harper-Collins, 2008. This is the book selected for Sunday Bible study in the Open Door class which I'm reading in a digital edition on Kindle. My recommendation: read it, read it, read it. Kindle location 1174 "There are, after all, different types of knowing. Science studies the repeatable; history studies the unrepeatable.... History is full of unlikely things that happened once and once only." 1209 "Sometimes human beings--individuals or communities--are confronted with something that they must reject outright or that, if they accept it, will demand the remaking of their worldview." 1235 "The most important decisions we make in life are not made by post-Enlightenment, left-brain rationality alone." 1333 "All knowing is a gift from God, historical and scientific knowing no less than that of faith, hope, and love..." 1564 "Creation was from the beginning an act of love, of affirming the goodness of the other..." 1803 "What creation needs is neither abandonment nor evolution but rather redemption and renewal; and this is both promised and guaranteed by the resurrection of Jesus from the dead. This is what the whole world is waiting for." 1831 "In our own day the problem is... flat literalism, on the one hand, facing modernist skepticism, on the other, with each feeding off the other." 1856 "Part of Christian belief is to find out what's true about Jesus and let that challenge our culture." 1896 "...if the ascension is true, then the whole project of human self-aggrandizement represented by eighteenth-century European and American thought is brought to heel." 1901 "At this point the Holy Spirit and the sacraments become enormously important since they are precisely the means by which Jesus is present." 2248 "...God's world, the world we call Heaven.... is different for ours (earth) but intersects with it in countless ways, not the least in the inner lives of Christian believers." 2397 "The ascension and appearing of Jesus constitute a radical challenge to the entire thought structure of the Enlightenment (and of course several other movements). And since our present Western politics is very much the creation of the Enlightenment, we should think seriously about the ways in which, as thinking Christians, we can and should bring that challenge to bear."

Being informed and transformed by reading N.T. Wright, I am very happy

I continue to nibble at my Annie Dillard reader. Living like Weasels (1974) is as nearly perfect as reading gets. The short essay describes her encounter with a weasel and offers a meditation about choice and necessity. It concludes:

"I think it would be well, and proper, and obedient, and pure to grasp your one necessity and not let it go, to dangle from it limp wherever it takes you. Then, even death, where you're going no matter how you live, cannot you part. Seize it and let it seize you aloft... lightly, thoughtless, from any height at all, from as high as eagles."

SEASONS Rice, Anne: Christ the Lord, Out of Egypt. New York: Ballantine Books, 2005. A competent retelling of the story richly embroidered with the senses (you can taste the bread, feel the water of the mikvah, smell the smoke of the sacrifice) and the creation of a very believable family dynamic. I don't care much for this type of fiction and wouldn't have read it if not for SEASONS but I did enjoy and do recommend it. I plan to donate Out of Egypt to the church library.

Long ago, I considered writing a book on the 1st Century, including the childhood of Jesus, the hidden life of Christ. Rachel Crying for Her Children was my working title. The project was put away and forgotten--I often find I satisfy my creative impulses by researching and planning without actually having to write a book. Probably an indication that I'm better suited to be a librarian than a writer. I much enjoyed revisiting this material and was pleased to see in Rice's Author's Note and in the bibliographic materials on her website many of the sources I had researched. I will also take a look at a couple of titles which Rice recommended: the translations of Richmond Lattimore and at John A. T. Robinson: The Priority of John.

Braddon, Mary Elizabeth: Lady Audley's Secret, Kindle downloaded from Project Gutenberg. Braddon (1857-1915) first published her "sensation" novel about bigamy in 1862 and it was a sensation of the popular sort, going through nine editions in the first year. I was surprised at how much fun it was to read this book--a murder mystery with a bit of romance and family dysfunction. The character of Robert Audley (the nephew/sleuth) and some of the book's tone remind me a bit of the much later comic novels of P. G. Wodehouse. A quote re. Lady Audley's relationship with her adult step-daughter: "There can be no reconciliation where there is no open warfare. There must be a battle, a brave boisterous battle, with pennants waving and cannon roaring, before there can be peaceful treaties and enthusiastic shaking of hands." Another favorite: "Sir Michael Audley made that mistake which is very commonly made by easy-going, well-to-do-observers, who have no occasion to look below the surface. He mistook laziness for incapacity. The thought because his nephew was idle, he must necessarily be stupid. He concluded that if Robert did not distinguish himself, it was because he could not.

"He forgot the mute inglorious Miltons, who die voiceless and inarticulate for want of that dogged perseverance, that blind courage, which the poet must possess before he can find a publisher; he forgot the Cromwells, who see the noble vessels of the state floundering upon a sea of confusion ... and who yet are powerless to get at the helm... Surely it is a mistake to judge of what a man can do by that which he has done.... The game of life is something like the game of ecarte, and it may be that the very best cards are sometimes left in the pack."

Yonge, Charlotte M.: The Heir of Redclyffe, Kindle downloaded from Project Gutenberg, first published in 1853 and the best selling of Yonge's novels, "the most popular novel of the age." Yonge (1823-1901) used profits from her books for charity. Her father told her upon the success of The Heir of Redclyffe "that a lady published for three reasons only: love of praise, love of money, or the wish to do good." She is sometimes called the novelist of the Oxford Movement and was a life-long Anglican Sunday Schools teacher. I read this book long ago, probably in imitation of Jo March in Alcott's Little Women. I enjoyed reading it again. Yonge is a bit "preachy" even for my taste (despite my complete sympathy with her religious views and, as readers of this blog have undoubtedly noted, my predilection for all things theological) but dear Charlotte does go on and on and on and...

I've started Wright, N.T.: Surprised by Hope. Rethinking Heaven, the Resurrection, and the Mission of the Church, Harper-Collins, 2008. This is the book selected for Sunday Bible study in the Open Door class which I'm reading in a digital edition on Kindle and I'm hopelessly behind the class in my reading. I'm greatly enjoying the DVD discussion by N.T. Wright and the discussion questions. A few years ago I read this author's The Last Word: Scripture and the Authority of God--Getting Beyond the Bible Wars (2006) and would put it on my short lists of books that made a significant difference in my world view because it finally made clear to me the questions asked by post-modernist thinkers. p. iv "Almost all Christian churches say something in the formularies about how important the Bible is. Almost all of them have devised ways, some subtle, some less so, of ostentatiously highlighting some parts of the Bible and quietly setting aside other parts." p. xi "How can what is mostly a narrative text be "authoritative"? [How can we] "speak of the Bible being in some sense "authoritative" when the Bible itself declares that all authority belongs to the one true God, and that this is now embodied in Jesus himself." p. 14 "My present point is that these older ways of thinking about the world have left their mark on the study of the Bible, on the way it has been taught... and that these ways of thinking have themselves become discredited in the mainstream culture." p. 16 "integrity consists not of having no presuppositions but of being aware of what one's presuppositions are and of the obligation to listen to and interact with those who have different ones." My copy of this book is very heavily highlighted and I recommend it with enthusiasm. I'm hoping that I will be able to enjoy reading N.T. Wright as much on the Kindle with bookmark/highlight tabs as I did in print with my yellow highlighter in hand.

I continue reading Annie Dillard (previously blogged) and greatly enjoyed revisiting Total Eclipse and An Expedition to the Pole from Teaching a Stone to Talk. I found her short story The Living a bit odd and disturbing, as Dillard can be. I'm reading a collection of her works on my Kindle. Dillard is one of the finest nature writers I've encountered and I greatly enjoy her writing style and her powers of observation. She makes unexpectedly connections and helps me see how intricately all of life is interwoven.

I'm reading through everything by Carlyn G. Heilbrun who will undoubtedly merit a blog dedicated solely to her one day. I recently finished The Last Gift of Time. Life Beyond Sixty. This author gives voice to my thoughts and I know no other author (who did not live in the 19th Century) who mirrors by interior life and thoughts so well. p.2 "...aging might be gain rather than loss, and... the impersonation of youth was unlikely to provide the second span of womanhood with meaning and purpose." p.4 "Perhaps I am one of those who are born... blessed with the gift of eternal old age." p. 35 "As Sartre said, not to choose is to have already chosen. The major danger in one's sixties--so I came to feel--is to be trapped in one's body and one's habits, not to recognize those supposedly sedate years as the time to discover new choices and to act upon them." p. 120 "What one remembers is, I think, a clue to what one wants to be." p. 137 "To find unmet friends, one must be a reader, and not an infrequent one.... Reading--like those more frivolous lifelong pursuits, singing in tune, or diving, or roller-blading--is either an early acquired passion or not: there is no in-between about it, no catching up in one's later years." and p. 182 "Life seemed simpler because I was young and simple." p. 150 quoting Samuel Johnson: "the enduring elegance of female friendship." ...perfectly describes the relationship of a woman reader with a woman writer whose work she has encompassed, reread, and delighted in." Thank you to my "unmet friends for that "enduring elegance: Jane Austen, Evelyn Whitaker, Elizabeth Barret Browning, Grace Livingstone Hill, Beatrix Potter, Christina Rossetti, Annie Dillard and, yes, Elaine Showalter and Carolyn G. Heilbrun."True sadness which is not nostalgia can, I have found, be dispelled by reading: by that same literature which seemed, in my youth, to hold both excitement, wisdom, and all I could discover of truth; and by today's newly perceptive books. Lifelong readers continue to read, finding in books... the means to enjoy life or to endure it."

I finished the second of the poetry books DMP gave me for Christmas last year. Gluck, Louise: Averno. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2006. She is an excellent poet and I'll probably keep this book on the shelf and may reread it in a year or two but it was much to dependent on the Persephone myth to be quite my cup of tea. full text available at the floating library

Maron, Margaret: Rituals of the Season. New York: Warner, 2005. This is one of the later books in the series which began with The Bootlegger's Daughter and DMP thought I'd enjoy the chapter heading quotations from Florence Hartley's The Ladies Book of Etiquette, 1873, which may be read on-line at the Open Library. Two quotes: "Many believe that politeness is but a mask worn in the world to conceal bad passions and impulses, and to make a show of possessing virtues not really existing in the heart; thus, that politeness is merely hypocrisy and dissimulation. Do not believe this; be certain that those who profess such a doctrine are themselves practising the deceit they condemn so much... True politeness is the language of a good heart." "Among well-bred persons, every conversation is considered in a measure confidential...." DMP's timing was great since I'd just read a Hartley quote in the Ph.D. thesis of Sonya Sawyer Fritz. A bit of Maron's humor from p. 36: "So what is the difference between a spinster and a old maid?" "Well, as Doris would've said if Herman hadn't stopped her, a spinster ain't never been married. But an old maid ain't never been married ner nothing." DMP was correct; I did enjoy Maron's mystery and may have the chance to read her again (I'll certainly scan her chapter headings)

I'm planning to read and re-read the non-fiction books by one of my favorite authors, Carolyn G. Heilbrun, and thought that I'd start with three of the Kate Fansler mysteries which were first published under the pseudonym of Amanda Cross:

In the Last Analysis. New York: Fawcett Books, 1964. "I didn't say I objected to Freud... I said I objected to what Joyce called freudful errors--all those nonsensical conclusions leaped to by people with no reticence and less mind." p. 1 "She had learned as a college teacher that if one simplified what one wished to say, one falsified it. It was possible only to say what one meant, as clearly as possible." p. 8 "...there's only one test for discovering what you really want: it consists in what you have." p. 159 "He probably thought I was writing a novel and he answered my question in the most long-winded and technical way possible. But then doctors are always indulging either in incoherence or oversimplification--if you want my opinion, I don't think they even understand each other." p. 209
Poetic Justice. New York: Fawcett Books, 1970. Filled with delicious W.H. Auden quotations and an excellent depiction of university life during my undergraduate years and some feminist issues. "unready to die... but already at the stage when one starts to dislike the young." p. 3 "I have nothing against young people--apart from the fact that they are arrogant, spoiled, discourteous, incapable of compromise, and unaware of the cost of everything they want to destroy.... I prefer those whom life has had time to season." p. 41 Kate to Reed: "You... are my greatest accomplishment. I have achieved the apotheosis of womanhood. To have earned a Ph.D., taught reasonably well, written books, traveled, been a friend and a lover--these are mere evasions of my appointed role in life: to lead a man to the altar. You are my sacrifice to the goddess of middle-class morality..." p. 107 "It may serve, in these frantic days of relevance, to remind you of the importance of the useless." p. 110 "When formality went from life, meaning went too. People always yowl about form without meaning, but what turns out to be impossible is meaning without form. Which is why I'm a teacher of literature and keep ranting on about structure." p. 133 "...'the only earthly joys are those we are free to choose--like solitude, your college, certain marriages.' 'And what about unearthly joys?' 'Ah, those, if we are fortunate, choose us. Like grace. Like talent.'" p. 135
The Theban Mysteries. New York: Avon Books, 1971. Antigone, dodging the draft, and an up-scale New York girls' school. "No one pretends anything any more, which I suppose is a good thing, although I can't help sometimes feeling that the constant expression of emotion in itself becomes the cause of the emotion which is expressed." p. 12 "What is troubling... is that he is rude, unwashed, inconsiderate, filled to the brim with slogans, and outrageously simplistic. Alas, he also right." p. 25 "Nothing ages more quickly than the absolutely up-to-date.... the latest in everything, age[s] like a woman who has had her face lifted: there is not even character to set off the ravages of time." p. 27 "There is nothing so uncomfortable as seeing both sides of the question." p. 89 "For myself, I've discovered that when I ask myself what I should do I always tumble into confusion. The only clear question is to ask oneself what one wants to do.... It sounds like [self-indulgence] certainly, but oddly enough, it isn't. The 'should' people are really indulging themselves by never finding out what they want. It has taken me many years to learn that discovering what one wants if the true beginning of a spiritual journey." p. 125

The Auden quotes in Poetic Justice are probably what inspired me to grab my well-worn Pocket Book of Modern Verse, edited by Oscar Williams, for bedside reading, all 628 pages. I have a few favorites but, by and large, I am out of sympathy with Moderns: "Terrence, this is stupid stuff..." A.E. Houseman. Found a smile and an apt description of the Parliament (Rice's NCAA Bulletin Board): "...owls raving--Solemnities not easy to withstand... The owls trilled with tongues of nightingale. These were all lies, though they matched the time..." Robert Graves.

I'm finally returning Peterson, Eugene H.: A Long Obedience in the Same Direction. Discipleship in an Instant Society. 2nd edition. Downers Grover IL: Intervarsity Press, 2000, to my Psalms study shelf. This a very rich book offering commentary on the Psalms of Ascent, Psalms 120-134. Many quotes from this book will one day be added to my Psalms notes but this one is worthy of mention here: "Those who parade the rhetoric of liberation but scorn the wisdom of service do not lead people into the glorious liberty of the children of God but into a cramped and covetous squalor."

SEASONS:

David Eagleman: Sum: Forty tales from the Afterlives. New York: Vintage Books, 2009. The author majored in British and American literature at Rice before earning a Ph.D. in neuroscience. A funny, thoughtful delight which is less about Afterlives than about our perceptions of life. A couple of quotations: "She was always leery of apostates, those who rejected the particulars of their religion in search of something that seemed more truthful. She disliked them because they seemed the most likely to float a correct guess." "...your memory has spent a lifetime manufacturing small myths to keep your life story consistent with who you thought you were. You have committed to a coherent narrative, misremembering little details and decisions and sequences of events.... you are battered and bruised in the collisions between reminiscence and reality."

I have done a couple of "quick and dirty" medical literature reviews:

macular degeneration for a private client
Vitamin D
is there an assoication between urinary tract problems/sugery and myasthenia gravis?

I've skimmed, clipped, filed, and recycled a 2 1/2 foot stack of periodicals.

I've begun transcribing my recipes.

I've been entering books into the church library catalog.

A couple of ideas have grabbed my attention in my lectionary reading and I'm starting to explore these biblical ideas, mostly in Hebrew Scripture:

staff, the meaning of Aaron's staff in Numbers and it's implications in other passages
robe, Elijah/Elisha is the source of my current curiosity but it is a recurrent motif

Brueggemann, Walter: The Prophetic Imagination. 2nd edition. Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 2001. There is hardly a page on which I didn't highlight something. An extraordinary book! "The riddle and insight of biblical faith is the awareness that only anguish leads to life, only grieving leads to joy, and only embraced endings permit new beginnings." p. 56 There is commentary on Psalm 137 p. 62. "Speech about hope cannt be explanatory and scientifically argumentative; rather it must be lyrical..." p. 65 "I believe that, rightly embraced, no more subversive or phrophetic idiom can be uttered than the practice of doxology, which sets before us the reality of God, of God right at the center of a scene from which we presumed he had fled." p. 66 "...exile is first of all where our speech has been silenced and God's speech has been banished." p. 69 "Compassion constitutes a radical form of criticism." p. 88 "That tradition of radical criticism is about the self-giving emptiness of Jesus... The emptying is not related to self-negating meditation, for it is a thoroughly political image concerned with the willing surrender of power..." p. 98 "Without the cross, prophetic imagination will likely be as strident and as destructive as that which it criticizes.... Prophetic criticism aims to creat an alternative consciousness with its own rhetoric and field of perception.... This kind of prophetic criticism does not lightly offer alternatives, does not mouth reassurances, and does not provide redemptive social policy. It knows that only those who mourn can be comforted, and so it first asks about how to mourn seriously and faithfully..." p. 99 "...all functions of the church can and should be prophetic voices that serve to criticize the dominant culture while energizing the faithful.... Thus, the essential question for the church is whether or not its prophetic voice has been co-opted into the culture of the day." p. 125

Peterson, Eugene H.: A Long Obedience in the Same Direction. Discipleship in an Instant Society. 2nd edition. Downers Grover IL: Intervarsity Press, 2000. I'm fairly certain I at least scanned the first edition, 1980. A devotional reading of the Psalms of Ascent, Psalms 120-134.

Fiction:

Schweizer, Mark: The Organist Wore Pumps, a liturgical mystery. SJMP Books, 2010. Funny! "It's tradition... when society started, women were not thought of as 'literary'... That's true. Well, if you don't count Emily Dickinson, Christina Rosetti, Elizabeth Barrett Browning, Dorothy Parker, or the Bronte sisters." See previous posts for more detailed descriptions of these books (Organist is the 8th in the series) which DMP and I both find hilarious.

Poetry:
Browning, Elizabeth Barrett: Sonnets from the Portuguese and other love poems. Illustrated by Adolf Hallman. Garden City, NY: Hanover House, 1954. My friend, Konny, gave me this book and I've greatly enjoyed reading these poems. The illustrations are particularly lovely in this gift book edition. Adolf Hallman, 1893-1968, is a Swedish illustrator; his drawings for this book have the sparse look and muted colors of much Scandinavian art. "We walked beside the sea, After a day which perished silently, Of its own glory..." "I thank all who have loved me in their hearts, With thanks and love from mine. Deep thanks to all... Love that endures, from Life that disappears."

. A couple of months ago I read Fairy Tales Every Child Should Know by Hamilton Wright Mabie, Doubleday, 1905. Kindle. Link: Project Gutenberg books by Mabie http://onlinebooks.library.upenn.edu/webbin/gutbook/author?name=Mabie%2c%20Hamilton%20Wright%2c%201846%2d1916

The Golden Book of Fairy Tales, translated (from the French) by Marie Ponsot and illustrated by Adrienne Ségur. Link: Terri Windling's tribute Segur http://www.endicott-studio.com/jMA03Summer/segur.html The book, published in 1957, was well worn when I first saw it 1959 and it was one of the few on the shelf that I actually had to share with my classmates.

One of my rediscovered delights is Der Struwwelpeter. Heinrich Hoffman (1809-1894) who wrote and illustrated the book in December 1844 as a gift for his three-year-old son. Link: illustrated Project Gutenberg Struwwelpeter http://www.gutenberg.org/files/12116/12116-h/12116-h.htmYou may notice a resemblance between Hoffman's drawing of Straw Peter and the movie character of Edward Scissorhands, a movie fairy tale which is evocative of numerous other fairy tales and movies. "Children are bewitched by this book because it challenges them in ways that adults can no longer fathom nor recall. Struwwelpeter stands or falls on the credo that children can bear to be scared by art and thereby grow." Link: review of the new Dover edition by Ellen Handler Spitz in The New Republic http://www.tnr.com/book/review/harsh-lesson

Der Struwwelpter is one of several books that Evelyn Whitaker mentions in her novels. In Gay, [Little Brown, W.R. Chambers, 1903] Oliver Bruce is writing a book "...in London he would be more within reach of books of reference, and be able to consult authorities, and get in touch with those strange and mysterious powers, the publishers, of whom Mrs. Bruce spoke with bated breath, dimly imagining them to resemble Great Agrippa in Struwwelpeter with his gigantic ink-pot."

I undoubtedly referenced when later in the book the children, Gay and Do, put a poppy flower in Oliver's ink pot. "...the two children always called his flat the Ogre's Den, and Oliver surmised that the festive mother might have encouraged the idea... The children had added on their own horrifying and blood curdling details selected from Jack the Giant Killer, with a flavour of the Three Bears."

Lovers of fairy tales will fairy tale illustrations will want to take a peek at Instructions. Everything you'll need to know on your journey by Neil Gaiman, illustrated by Charles Vess, Harper-Collins. The book was first published as A Wolf at the Door, Simon & Schuster, 2000. Vess dedicates to the above mentioned Terri Windling. A reviewer has called it "how to survive a fairy tale" but I think it could as easily be called "how to survive life." "Trust dreams. Trust your heart, and trust your story."

I've been thinking about what I learned at BWWA 2010 and exploring websites related to Victorian literature. I've been reading technical stuff on archives, libraries, and website design. I've been exploring HASTAC - Humanities, Arts, Science Technology Advanced Collaboratory which I had not been aware of until I was interviewed (link on the sidebar) but this subject is fascinating to me. link: Bridget Draxler's current blog on the future of thinking.

I've been catching up on periodicals and catalogs. Shopping on-line for clothes; they've quit making my trousers! I hate to shop so it's a good thing that my view on fashion is: "Fashion is for those who have sense of personal style."

Probably spending too much time on Facebook but I'm enjoying reconnecting with my cousins, classmates, and kids I know & loved from my Sunday School classes.

Fiction:

Gaskell, Elizabeth Cleghorn: Mary Barton. 1848. Kindle. Project Gutenberg. This book is essentially a love story with characters about whom it is easy to care. That empathy is the snare to engage the reader in a discussion of capitalism and the conflict between mill owners and workers, in an investigation of power, money, and faith.

Bedside book:

Brueggemann, Walter: The Prophetic Imagination. 2nd edition. Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 2001. Brueggemann is never boring but his texts are incredilbly rich; I expect to linger over this reading. The first edition (1978) is the "first publication in which" Brueggemann says he "more or less found my own voice as a teacher in the church." I am an admirer of Brueggemann and my mature views of scripture have been significantly shaped by his writings. In this early book I recognize the roots of some of the later works--particularly Message of the Psalms. Awed to Heaven, Rooted to Earth, the prayers of Walter Brueggman lives on my bedside shelf so that he prays for me when I cannot pray for myself. In February 2005, Bobbie and I attended his lecture: Psalms: the good, the hard, the surprising. Some quotes from my notes: "The Psalms invite us to push the edges of our emotional alertness to the reality around us." "...faith requires candid entry into suffering..." "good authoritative speech... generates a new world... why our speech must be imaginative and not cliched." "Breath is a gift; it is not a possession. Breath is the property of the life-giving God." "There is nothing in your life that you cannot bring to the presence (orientation) to the absence (disorientation) of God." "Biblical faith traffics not in certitude but in relationship." "Church... too much an echo of the culture... need to recover our idenitity... as ...the place where the truth is told and things are called by their right names..." " God responds to authentic trouble..." the purpose of worship is "to re-preform creation... people come to church overwhelmed by chaos... liturgy transforms chaos into creation." "...the promise of new orientation is not a quiet deal between me and Jesus. It is a BIG cosmic event in which I may participate."

link: some of Brueggemann's texts available on-line

I've been spending a lot of time working on my Victorian author project. Newly unearthed:

a new work of short fiction in an Anglican parish publication and credited to Evelyn Whitaker. I've long suspected that she first published in religious press. I also have hints of a couple of other similar publications to chase.
a listing of her name in a church history: Christ Church, Saint Pancras, London
which strongly suggests an association with Cristina and Maria Rossetti which accounts for the presence of painters in a number of Whitaker's writings and perhaps for the Pre-
Raphaelite illustration on the cover of the 1886 Walter Smith edition of Tip Cat bookbinding exhibit of library University North Texas
the repository of records for Roberts Brothers (Boston) who were the authorized publishers of Evelyn Whitaker's works in the USA. Catalog information notes re. endorsed royalty checks indicate a variant spelling "Whittaker" which may facilitate biographical research. A trip to Boston is in my future.
so I'll have a lot of updating of my website: http://evelynwhitakerlibrary.org/index.html

I've done a major review of the medical literature re. myasthenia gravis for a private client.

I'm reading a lot of Britsh Women Authors preparing for the BWWA conference at TAMU in April:

Mary Augusta Ward 1851-1920 a prolific and best selling writer of novels with religious themes and Victorian ideals. She was one of the founders of the Women's National Anti-Suffrage League. For more information: Wikipedia Mary Augusta Arnold (Mrs. Humphry Ward)

Ward, Mary Augusta (Mrs. Humphry): Robert Elsmere. 1888. Kindle. Project Gutenberg. The best known of Ward's novels is this story of a young Anglican minister married to an orthodox wife with a "spiritual" sensibility. His reason/intellect leads to doubt and he resigns his pulpit. He struggles (they struggle) as he seeks a new path to faith and ministry through a historical Christ. This book is an excellent presentation of the religious and philosophical discussions which grew out of the higher criticism (the biblical textual criticism) of the late 19th Century. Ward, through Elsmere, attempts to answer both traditional faith and "positivism" e.g. the philosphy of August Comte. Fiction is my favorite way to read philosophy and theology and this book was interesting, engaging, informative, and a wonderful love story. "Where and when and how you will, but somewhen and somehow, God created the heavens and the earth!" "The decisive events in the world take place in the intellect. It is the mission of books that they help one remember it." "It is the education of God! Do not imagine it will put you farthr from Him! He is in criticism, in science, in doubt, so long as the doubt is a pure and honest doubt... He is in all life, in all thought." "All things change,--creeds and philosophies and outward systems,--but God remains."

Ward, Mary Augusta (Mrs. Humphry): The Mating of Lydia. 1913. Kindle. Project Gutenberg. Is friendship without romantic love possible between men and women? A look at the New Woman who turns out to be the old Victorian ideal of woman as "redeemer" of man. Like Robert Elsmere this book has a strong villan, an older man attempting to destroy the faith/self of a younger/better man.

Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell, 1810-1865, biographer of Charolotte Bronte and author of the delightful Cranford which was popularized in the 2007 BBC production, has been one of my favorite authors for some time now. Her religious views are Unitarian in the best sense as one who seeks common ground and unity among people of good will. Victorian Web: Elizabeth Gaskell Wikipedia Elizabeth Gaskell beautiful portraits of her

Gaskell, Elizabeth: North and South. 1854. Kindle. Project Gutenberg. First published in serial form in Household Words 1854-1855 and in volume form in 1855. The story concerns a dissenting Anglican minister and his family (wife and daughter) who move from their parish in the South to the cotton textile manufacturing city in the North and interact with both the owner of a mill and the men and women who work in the mills. Well-crafted characters and social interaction, especially between classes, are Gaskell's strong points. A compelling read. Highly recommended.

Marie Corelli, 1855 -1924, the People's Choice of her time, the best-selling author in both Britian and America, although not greatly admired or appreciated by academic readers. Her writing style is over-the-top, laden with sensationalism and emotionalism. She presents an odd mix of religion/Christianity with theories of parallel universes, astral projection, and reincarnation. I find Corelli's scientific knowledge shallow and pretentious. Any writer who was so widely read and wildly popular must be considered interesting, but I did not much enjoy nor do I recommend Corelli. VictorianWeb Marie Corelli mariecorelli.org/

Corelli, Marie: The Mighty Atom. 1896. Kindle. Project Gutenberg. A quick read with an interesting view of childhood, faith, education. Depressing in the same way that Joyce Carol Oates, Emily Bronte, Sylvia Plath are often depressing to me.

Corelli, Marie: A Romance of Two Worlds. 1886 Kindle. Project Gutenberg. The author's first novel deals with art and music and parallel universes. She attributes much (too much) to ELECTRICITY, particularly to "human electricity" This book reminds me of John Fowles The Magus and Emily Bronte Wuthering Heights and magical realism, best represented by Isabel Allende and Gabriel Garcia Marquez.

Non-fiction:

Foster, Thomas C.: How to Read Novels Like a Professor. A jaunty exploration of the world's favorite litereary form. New York: Harper, 2008. I'm still nibbling this book. In addition to being helpful to students preparing to attend or taking college literature classes, I think it would be helpful to writers.

I have been reminded of why I bother subscribing to and reading The Economist as I have greatly enjoyed the holiday double issue, dated December 19th 2009-January 1st 2010. Of particular note were articles on violin-making, the virtues of pessimism, too many chains (religious freedom), the Harry Potter economy, hedonism & claret, dark matter rumors, language, joys of dirt, network effects (techonology and newpapers), an interesting books review (Wade, Nicholoas: The Faith Instinct: How Religion Evolved and Why It Endures. Penguin Press.), and comments on an exhibition on human identity and on the vampire lit phenom.

I also read all the fine print at http://www.medicare.gov/ as I gathered information and helped people enroll in Medicare Part D Prescripiton Drug Plans.

My daily Bible reading this year will be from http://www.pcusa.org/lectionary/

Mabie, Hamilton Wright: Fairy Tales Every Child Should Know. Doubleday, 1905. Project Gutenberg. Kindle. Beatrix Potter got me started so I'll be nibbling children's lit for a bit.

Numeroff, Laura & Bond, Felicia: If You Take a Mouse to the Movies. Harper-Collins, 2009. The latest addition to the charming series that both DMP and I enjoy. We love to share the "if you give" books with children who come to visit. This edition is a gift from Sonya and includes a CD and sheet music and cookie recipes and family activies. What fun! http://www.mousecookiebooks.com/

Willems, Mo: Don't Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus! New York: Hyperion, 2003. Caldecott Honor Book. Another gift from Sonya. A clever little book that teaches a young child how to say "no." I'll be adding this book to the children's collection in the church library.

Paulson, Beth: Wild Raspberries. 2008 Another gift from David because "she seems to speak what you feel" and this Ouray, CO poet is one of my favorites. Previous books are The Company of Trees and The Truth about Thunder.

Merrill, Nan C.: Psalms for Praying: an invitation to wholeness. New York/London: Continuum, 2006. This reworking of the Psalms emphasizes "God is love..." It is by no means an accurate translation but it is a response to the timeless text and gives a fresh voice to psalmic prayer.

Peterson, Eugene H.: Christ Plays in Ten Thousand Places: A conversation in spiritual theology. Kindle. I've lingered in the section on Eucharist and hospitality. I have been fascinated with the discussion of Dom Gregory Dix: The Shape of the Liturgy (1941) which notes four verbs: take, bless, break, and give. In fact, I'm probably going to read that section again.

Whitaker, Evelyn: Laddie. We continue our discussion of the 19th Century woman novelist as theologian.

I've been spending a lot of time working on my Victorian author project. Newly unearthed:

a new work of short fiction in an Anglican parish publication and credited to Evelyn Whitaker. I've long suspected that she first published in religious press. I also have hints of a couple of other similar publications to chase.
a listing of her name in a church history: Christ Church, Saint Pancras, London
which strongly suggests an association with Cristina and Maria Rossetti which accounts for the presence of painters in a number of Whitaker's writings and perhaps for the Pre-
Raphaelite illustration on the cover of the 1886 Walter Smith edition of Tip Cat bookbinding exhibit of library University North Texas
the repository of records for Roberts Brothers (Boston) who were the authorized publishers of Evelyn Whitaker's works in the USA. Catalog information notes re. endorsed royalty checks indicate a variant spelling "Whittaker" which may facilitate biographical research. A trip to Boston is in my future.
so I'll have a lot of updating of my website: http://evelynwhitakerlibrary.org/index.html

I've done a major review of the medical literature re. myasthenia gravis for a private client.

I'm reading a lot of Britsh Women Authors preparing for the BWWA conference at TAMU in April:

Mary Augusta Ward 1851-1920 a prolific and best selling writer of novels with religious themes and Victorian ideals. She was one of the founders of the Women's National Anti-Suffrage League. For more information: Wikipedia Mary Augusta Arnold (Mrs. Humphry Ward)

Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell, 1810-1865, biographer of Charolotte Bronte and author of the delightful Cranford which was popularized in the 2007 BBC production, has been one of my favorite authors for some time now. Her religious views are Unitarian in the best sense as one who seeks common ground and unity among people of good will. Victorian Web: Elizabeth Gaskell Wikipedia Elizabeth Gaskell beautiful portraits of her

Marie Corelli, 1855 -1924, the People's Choice of her time, the best-selling author in both Britian and America, although not greatly admired or appreciated by academic readers. Her writing style is over-the-top, laden with sensationalism and emotionalism. She presents an odd mix of religion/Christianity with theories of parallel universes, astral projection, and reincarnation. I find Corelli's scientific knowledge shallow and pretentious. Any writer who was so widely read and wildly popular must be considered interesting, but I did not much enjoy nor do I recommend Corelli. VictorianWeb Marie Corelli mariecorelli.org/

I download books free of charge, directly to my Kindle (.mobi format for Kindle 1) from http://manybooks.net/ which offers thousands of books preformatted in many formats for computer, smartphone, electronic books, ipod etc. etc.

Non-fiction:

I also read all the fine print at http://www.medicare.gov/ as I gathered information and helped people enroll in Medicare Part D Prescripiton Drug Plans.

My daily Bible reading this year will be from http://www.pcusa.org/lectionary/

Mabie, Hamilton Wright: Fairy Tales Every Child Should Know. Doubleday, 1905. Project Gutenberg. Kindle. Beatrix Potter got me started so I'll be nibbling children's lit for a bit.

Whitaker, Evelyn: Laddie. We continue our discussion of the 19th Century woman novelist as theologian.

Barrie, James M.: What Every Woman Knows. (1906) Project Gutenberg. Kindle. We watched Finding Neverland (Netflix) and the movie prompted me to review Barrie's life and browse a couple of his books. (It's a good movie but it does play fast & loose with the facts.) I don't remember having read this particular play before. Clever, fun and I think it would stage rather well.

Potter, Beatrix: The Great Big Treasury of Beatrix Potter. Project Gutenberg. Kindle. We watched Miss Potter (Netflix) and so I'm reading bedtime stories.

Richmond, Grace S.: Red Pepper Burns.
Richmond, Grace S.: Mrs. Red Pepper. (1913)
Richmond, Grace S.: Red Pepper's Patients. (1919) Project Gutenberg. Kindle. I read these books as a child and have read them at least more as an adult. The stories are about a doctor in the early 20th Century. What stricks me about these books on this reading is the frequent mention of drug addition. These writers are part of the "living clean" movement: fresh air, exercise, don't drink.

Palmer, William J.: The Detective and Mr. Dickens. A Secret Victorian Journal Attributed to Wilkie Collins, Dicovered and Edited by... New York: St. Martin's Press, 1990. The author is/was English prof at Purdue. He writes a compelling story set in the dark underbelly of London at night . The sinful pleasures of male Victorian life are the primary plot device. Every woman in this book is a prostitute or a pander or a victim. As one would expect given the sub-title, several scenes are quite graphic and push into pornography.

Whitaker, Evelyn: Laddie. We are exploring the 19th Century woman novelist as theologian.

Poole, Ernest: His Second Wife. Kindle. Project Gutenberg. Originally published in 1918. Having enjoyed his Pulitzer Prize winning novel, His Family, I gave this author who is new to me another chance. Another good read by an author I plan to read again. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ernest_Poole

Showalter, Elaine: A Jury of Her Peers. American Women Writers from Anne Bradstreet to Annie Proulx. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2009. Kindle. This compelling book by the author of A Literature of their Own sabotaged my vacation fiction binge. I've spent the last month reading and chasing rabbits e.g. women authors I've read and those I haven't and I was surprised at the number in both categories. I've got more reading to do than I'll have time to do it. What struck me most was how time and again a woman writer was "silenced as much by her activity in a repressive political movement as by her domestic life." And, I wonder if feminism is not at least to some extent yet another repressive political movement. Women who celebrate heterosexual marriage and motherhood (certainly in the late Victorian era and I suspect in other past eras and the present) are still silenced by women as well as by men with the label "sentimentalist." Surely some of those writers have something of interest to say and a few at least say it well. But then I have a hobbyhorse: http://evelynwhitakerlibrary.org/

Kelley, Jacqueline: The Evolution of Calpurnia Tate. New York: Henry Holt and Company, 2009. Recommended by my friend, Cathey R. This coming-of-age book focuses on a young girl and her grandfather, interweaving rural Texas in the early 20th Century with Darwin. This a wonderful story beautifully told. Must reading for anyone (of any age, of any gender) who enjoys good fiction. I found it even more delightful as a break from and continuation of the study of Showalter.

Smith, Alexander McCall: Friends, Lovers, Chocolate. New York: Pantheon Press, 2005. Cathey R. passed on this book from her collection as part of the thank you for the border collie puppy adventure. I had read and enjoyed The No. 1 Ladies' Dectective Agency and at least one other book in this author's series. This is the 2nd book in the Sunday Pholosophy Club series and the first that I've read of that series. It stood alone very well and was more to my tastes; probably due to the Edinburgh, Scotland setting. Good light ready with a thought provoking phrase now and then.

Peterson, Eugene H.: Christ Plays in Ten Thousand Places. A conversation in spiritual theology. Grand Rapids: William B. Eerdmans, 2005. Kindle. Yes, a Kindle book works at bedside if I remember to keep the battery charged. I plan to linger with the book for quite a while. It is dense and rich in food for thought. I have long loved the introduction to John's Gospel and his presentation of Christ--the Word, the Logos, the creative speaking of God. Peterson is building on and expanding my appreciation of this text and helping me see application in my own life.

Johnson, Elizabeth A.: She Who Is: the Mystery of God in Feminist Theological Discourse. New York: The Crossroads Publishing Co., 1992, 2002, 2003. This month we are discussing the Chapter 1. Introduction: Speaking rightly of God and Chapter 6. Classical Theology

Annual review of medical literature re. scleroderma.

Doing some reading about the kidney and its various disorders.

Still catching up on my periodicals:

From Much ado about nothing, The Economist, Vol. 392, No. 8639, July 11th, 2009. A book review of Nothing: A very short introduction by Frank Close, Oxford U. Press, 2009. "Does anything remain when everything is taken away?... Big Bang... Where did all this stuff come from? Science says that it came from quantum fluctuations in the void.... Mr. Close surveys 3,000 years of thinking to arrive at the modern solution... The answer is nothing." I like both physics and metaphysics so I'll probably take a closer look at this book which is due out in the USA next month. Based on the review, the modern solution of nothingness closely approaches the Zen solution. In my reading and practice (which is no longer Zen) I've found those unexplained "quantum fluctuations in the void" to be a less poetic way to phrase the Judeo-Christian solution, "In the beginning, the Spirit of God moved across the face of the deep." The answer is not nothing" but rather The One out whose being {I AM} flows all that has being.

Fforde, Jasper: Thursday Next First among Sequels. New York: Penguin, 2007. Not the first sequel but the fifth book in this delightful series: The Eyre Affair, Lost in a Good Book, The Well of Lost Plots, Something Rotten, First Among Sequels. {There is also a companion series, The Nursery Crime series which I do not read: The Big Over Easy, The Fourth Bear.} Quote, p.52: "Reading, I had learned, was as creative a process as writing, sometimes more so. When we read of the dying rays of the setting sun or the boom and swish of the incoming tide, we should reserve as much praise for ourselves as for the author. After all, the reader is doing all the work--the writer might have died long ago."

Schweizer, Mark: The Diva Wore Diamonds: a liturgical mystery. Hopkinsville KY: St. James Music Press, 2009. 159 p. illustrator: Jim Hunt. Hip, hip, hooray! The slipcase didn't mean the end of the series. This is the seventh book featuring an Episcopal choir director who is also a small town chief of police and a wanna be writer who channels Raymond Chandler... The usual delightful read and a good laugh when I needed one. The series in order: The Alto Wore Tweed, The Baritone Wore Chiffon, The Tenor Wore Tapshoes, The Soprano wore Falsettos, The Bass Wore Scales, The Mezzo Wore Mink. Visit the link, not only for the liturgical mysteries but also because St. James Music Press is a serious press offering really superb church music and you can listen to practically everything in their catalog. http://www.sjmpbooks.com/ MYSTERY EPISCOPAL CHURCH POLITICS SMALL TOWN ROMANCE 21st Century

Andreach, Robert J.: Studies in Structure: Stages in the spiritual life in four modern authors: Gerarad Manley Hopkins, James Joyce, T.S. Eliot, Hart Crane. London: Burns & Oates, 1964, Fordham University Press. This is an exceedingly odd book; it is less literary criticism and more an analysis of stages in spirituality in the works of these authors referring to Dante, St. Augustine, and St. John of the Cross as sources. I enjoyed this fresh viewpoint and I enjoyed revisiting those writers which I rarely read voluntarily e.g. Joyce and Crane. During my college years, when I was first reading Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, I threw the book across the room {A real no-no for a librarian.} in disgust at what I thought was "really screwed up color imagery." Andreach explains that Joyce has consciously "inverted" the stages of spiritual life. At least now I understand why I have never liked Joyce nor Crane nor really most of the Modern writers. Quote from section on Hart Crane, p. 118: "The more he seeks among the particulars of a debased society, the more his spiritual consciousness in diminished."

Patten, Robert L.: George Cruikshank's Life, Times, and Art. Volume1: 1792-1835. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 1992. Kindle BIOGRAPHY ARTIST ILLUSTRATOR 18th Century 19th Century 20th Century This award winning biography by one of my English literature professors from Rice University is proving a most enjoyable re-read. One of Patten's strong points as a professor was rooting the literature in the history, the sociology, and the culture of the time, He offers rich details in a very readable frame. With my new interest in book illustration it is even more interesting to me now than it was on my first reading some years ago. Since I'm spending much time in my chair of late, this reading may take quite a long while.

Linn, Dennis; Linn, Sheila Fabricant; Linn, Matthew: Good Goats: healing our image of God. Mahwah, NJ: Paulist Press, 1994. vi, 101 p. I'm finding the Linns to be difficult authors. I agree with most of their conclusions but I find their arguments to be shallow and repetitive. Their attack in this month's reading was on St. Anselm's view of the atonement struck me as a bit insulting to both Anselm and God. I am, as always, enjoying the discussion with the circle of sisters. FEMININITY OF GOD JUDGEMENT DAY HELL DOCTRINE 20th Century

Anselm of Canterbury who in the Preface to the Proslogion wrote, "I have written the little work that follows... in the role of one who strives to raise his mind to the contemplation of God and one who seeks to understand what he believes.
I acknowledge, Lord, and I give thanks that you have created your image in me, so that I may remember you, think of you, love you. But this image is so obliterated and worn away by wickedness, it is so obscured by the smoke of sins, that it cannot do what it was created to do, unless you renew and reform it. I am not attempting, O Lord, to penetrate your loftiness, for I cannot begin to match my understanding with it, but I desire in some measure to understand your truth, which my heart believes and loves. For I do not seek to understand in order that I may believe, but I believe in order to understand. For this too I believe, that "unless I believe, I shall not understand." (Isa. 7:9) . " For more information visit these links: http://justus.anglican.org/resources/bio/141.html

http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/basis/anselm-intro.html

Yonge, Charolotte M. (ed.): Gold Dust: a collection of golden counsels for the santification of daily life. New York: Thomas Whittkaer n.d.. 165 p. DEVOTION 19th Century

I've done a review of information about frontal temporal lobe dementia.

Gardening books as I plan new plantings along the back fence. The overgrown ligustrum hedge was cut down to facilitate the replacement of the fence blown down by Hurricane Ike. I've removed the jungle of honeysuckle, bramble, elderberry, trumpet vine and who knows what else. I'm also spending a lot of time watering grass.

Sansom C. J.: Dissolution: a novel of Tudor England. New York: Penguin Press, 2003. Introducing Mathew Shardlake and featuring a cameo appearanced by Thomas Cromwell. This book came highly recommended by the staff at Houston's Murder by the Book which is the perfect bookstore. I don't read mysteries but since I'd read and enjoyed Ellis Peters' Cadfael series, the staff assured me I'd want to read Dissolution and since David already owned the book, I read it. Mathew Shardlake is a hunchback and I heard echos of John Halifax, Gentleman. An interesting book, reasonably well written but much darker than the Peters' books. FICTION MYSTERY 21st Century

Cram, Mildred: Forever. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1944. Original copyright 1934. I found this novella at an estate sale. The book jacket notes "a love that was stronger than life and stronger than death." The author was a popular novelist and movie writer. Among her credits is An Affair to Remember. Notes on her extensive film career may be found at the internet moved data base:

http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0186118/

This writer is not listed in Wikkipedia nor at U. Penn's Celebration of Women Writers. So someone has some work to do. Maybe me on a less busy day. FICTION ROMANCE MOVIES LIFE&DEATH 20th Century

Braeme, Charolotte M.: Dora Thorne. Project Gutenberg. Kindle. Braeme's (1836-1884) last name is correctly spelled "Brame" but often spelled variously including "Braem" and her pseudonym for U.S. published books is Bertha C. Clay. She was the author of Grandma Wieland's "now that's a story" Married in Name Only. Grandma's other book for which I'm still searching was titled, Wed and Parted. I read Dora Thorne because it is the best known book of an author associated with Miss Toosey's Mission as part of evelynwhitakerlibrary.org. I recently had an email from her great great great niece. FICTION ROMANCE 19th Century

Whyte-Melville, G. J.: Kate Coventry. An autobiography. T. Nelson and Sons, 1909. Project Gutenberg. Kindle. I read this book about a year ago but somehow never noted it in my journal so this is a second reading. An amusing story and an excellent depiction of "the new woman." There is a good deal on horsemanship (or horsewomanship) and fox and stag hunting. FICTION ROMANCE 19th Century HORSE HUNTING WOMEN'S FRIENDSHIPS COUSINS FAMILY NOTE CALAHAN

I'm reading a lot of material on how to raise and train a puppy since I'll be baby sitting a border collie puppy while Cathey goes to Ireland in search of Celtic spirituality.

I'm reading a lot of material about estates and probate and checklists for dealing with death and working with family photos in memory of my dear father-in-law.

Hill, Grace Livingston: The Girl from Montana. New York: Grosset & Dunlap, 1922 by J.B. Lippincott Company. Project Gutenberg. Kindle. Fiction Binge A fleeing girl, a lady by instinct, a true gentleman, and a long journey on horseback to Philadelphia. What becomes of all the girls/ladies who are not heiresses? This book has a comprehensive listing of titles by Grqace Livinston Hill and several titles by Ruth Livingston Hill. FICTION ROMANCE 20th Century

Hill Lutz, Grace Livingston: The Witness. New York: Grosset & Dunlap, copyright 1917 by Harper Brothers. Project Gutenberg. Kindle. Fiction Binge Dedicated to her mother: Marcia Macdonald Livingston. A men's college story based on the bibilical account of the stoning of Stephen in Acts. The far-reaching influence of a faithful life, faithful parents, and the calling of a preacher. Two constrasting women, good and evil.. FICTION ROMANCE RELIGION 20th Century

Hill Lutz, Grace Livingston: The Mystery of Mary. New York: Grosset & Dunlap, copyright 1910 by J.B. Lippincott Company. Project Gutenberg. Kindle. Fiction Binge A fleeing lady, a true gentleman, and a lot of bother about hats. FICTION ROMANCE 20th Century

Radcliffe, Ann: The Mysteries of Udolpho. A Project Gutenberg Book first published in 1794. Kindle This is the book everyone is reading and talking about in Jane Austen's Northanger Abbey. FICTION 18th Century A long, slow, slogging read. This very early fiction is an fine example of the development of the novel. To me it seemed as if it needed a good copy editor. The story is a good one although to this reader it seems a bit all over the place. Maybe it's a romance, a gothic romance. Maybe it's a ghost story. But, everytime the plot heats up and "gets good" everyone gets in a carriage or on a mule and away we go... or someone writes some very bad poetry. The travel guidebook (not accurate) and the bad poetry and the morlizing were a bit much. This is a book that I'm glad to have read but next time I'll just read about Miss Austen's characters reading it.

Schweizer, Mark: The Mezzo Wore Mink: a liturgical mystery. Hopkinsville KY: St. James Music Press, 2008. 191 p. illustrator: Jim Hunt. Fiction Binge I don't read mysteries but I do make exceptions. Schweizer's six books featuring an Episopal choir director who is also a small town chief of police and a wanna be writer who channels Raymond Chandler... Well, what more can I say. Laugh out loud funny! Unfortunately the slip case issued with this book probably marks the end of the series. Perfect for a cold, rainy day. Read every word including the added material and adverts on the frontis. This is one you'll either lover or hate. The series in order: The Alto Wore Tweed, The Baritone Wore Chiffon, The Tenor Wore Tapshoes, The Soprano wore Falsettos, The Bass Wore Scales, The Mezzo Wore Mink. MYSTERY EPISCOPAL CHURCH POLITICS SMALL TOWN ROMANCE 21st Century

Rolls, Elizabeth: His Lady Mistress. free download link from Kindle Daily Post, Tue. March 10, 2009 in celebration of Harlquin's 60th anniversary. Fiction Binge This is a Harlequin Historical Romance, "a bodice ripper." Several decades ago I was badly addicted to paperback romances; since I could read the shorter ones in under 2.5 hours, I read about 3 each and every week. I eventually tired of the genre as I do all formulaic ficition. Since I've been studying a lot of 19th and early 20th Century novels written by women, I found this reading of a current romance novel quite interesting. Except for the mandatory three erotic scenes in the 21st Century version and the diminishment of vocabulary and syntax, this novel is much the same as the earliest romance novels. I wonder if Rolls use of "Blakeney" is a conscious allusion to Emmuska Orczy's Pimpernel

Rossetti, Christina: Goblin Market, The Princes' Progress, and Other Poems. Kindle A Project Gutenburg Book first published in 1862, 1866 and in one volume in 1913. POETS DEVOTION 19th Century Janet and Holly disocvered her devotioanl writings and, when they discovered I'd read them years and years ago, they accused me of holding out.

Belenky, Mary Field et al: Women's Ways of Knowing: The development of self, voice, and mind. New York: Basic Books, 1986. WOMEN PSYCOLOGY EDUCATION KNOWLEDGE THEORY I first read this book some years ago, probably early 1990s. Either a gift from or recommendation of Cathey. This fresh read was prompted by invitation to take part in a conversation re. how women do theology.

Heilbrun Carolyn G: Toward a Recognition of Androgyny. New York: W. W. Norton,1982, 1993. (Orig. publ Alfred A Knopf, 1964) LITERARY CRITICISM ANDROGYNY MAN WOMAN LITERATURE 20th Century I read first read this book some years ago (probably in the late 1980s) and have re-read it several times since. This browsing was prompted by a visit with Rice University doctoral candidate Basak. Helibrun's Writing a Woman's Life is on my short-list of books that made a difference in my life. She is, to me, Woman as hero...

Day, Dorothy: Selected Writings: By little and by little. edited and introduction by Robert Ellsberg. Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books, 1983, 1992. BIOGRAPHY MEMOIR CHRISTIAN CATHOLIC SOCIAL JUSTICE SOCIALISM THEOLOGY. I first read this book in the mid-1990s as a study text from Ladies Bible Class taught by Joe Becker. It is one of books that both affirms and informs my life. The re-read was prompted by a 1-hour dramatic presentation of a "AConversation with Dorothy Day." at St. Anne, Houston, March 2008 which I plan to attend with Steve and Chelsey.

Ruskin, John: The King of the Golden River. A Project Gutenberg first published in 1851. includes introduction Kindle. FAIRY TALES 19th Century Unusual in that Ruskin wrote this story purely for entertainment of the young child who would grow up to become his wife.

Wroblewski, David: The Story of Edgar Sawtelle. A Novel. Harper Collins e-books, 2008. Kindle. FICTION DOGS FAMILY 21st Century Beautifully written best seller. Hamlet meets the Call of the Wild with some interesting views on life after death and the communications between animals and people. I've always loved a good dog story.

Booth, Evangeline & Hill, Grace Livingston: The War Romance of the Salvation Army. A Project Gutenberg Book first published by J. T. Lippincott, 1919. Kindle. WORLD WAR I WOMEN 20th Century . I chose to read this book because I thought the choice of a popular novelist as co-author was interesting. I remember hearing Grandaddy Cummings talk about his WWI experiences with the Red Cross (negative) and the Salvation Army (positive--he enjoyed their doughnuts and coffee) and such experiences are described in some detail. Also included is the account of the reading of Psalm 91 (location 2769) on the night before battle in France.

Miley, Jeanie: Sittting Strong: Wrestling with the ornery God. Macon, GA: Smith & Helwyn, 2006. SUFFERING CONSOLATION BIBLE: JOB CHRISTIANITY 21st Century A selection for SEASONS {Sisters Enjoying a Season of Nurturing Sisters, my chuch-based reading support group.} and the basis of our Retreat at The Cenacle in Fall 20008.

Hill, Grace Livingston: A Voice in the Wilderness. A Project Gutenberg Book first published in 1916. Kindle. FICTION ROMANCE ARIZONA SCHOOL 20th Century . The story of a schoolteacher in Arizona, an American representation of the Victorian ideal of womanhood and manhood. Early work of a popular novelist.

Wiggin, Kate Douglas: The Bird's Christmas Carol. A Project Gutenberg Book first published in 1886. Kindle. FICTION SENTIMENTAL DEATH CHILDHOOD 19th Century . A sweet, sentimental story. I remember reading this book as a child.

This year my devotional readings are coming from two sources:

Jowett, John Henry: My Daily Meditation for the Circling Year. New York Chicago: Fleming H. Revell Company, 1924. Project Gutenberg. Kindle. Each day's reading in a short commentary on a scripture reference which I'm incongruously reading in the Amplified Bible, the Lockman Foundation's Kindle edition.
For a number of years now, my daily Bible readings have been taken from a lectoinary. This year I'm using the website of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops with readings from the New American Bible. I'm posting a link to today's reading. http://www.usccb.org/nab/today.shtml

Hope, Laure Lee: Bunny Brown and His Sister Sue at Christmas Tree Cove. A Project Gutenberg book. Kindle. CHILDRENS LITERATURE 20th Century Another series by the author of the famed Bobbsey Twins books. I remember reading this story as a child. Having finished the Bobbsey Twins series I started the Bunny Brown/Sister Sue series and gave up on it having found this plot about a dog stealing a purse too predictable and the characters too immature. Alas, I had out-grown the genre and moved on.

Tarkington, Booth: Beasley's Christmas Party. A Project Gutenberg book first published in 1909. Kindle. FICTION SHORT STORY HANDICAPPED CHILD 20th Century An amusing romance about a man with no imagination supposedly.

Wodehouse, P. G. : Three Men and a Maid. A Project Gutenberg book first published in 1921. Kindle. FICTION ROMANCE ATLANTIC CRUISE 20th Century Classic Wodehouse and quite amusing. Sometimes on a dark winter's day one must read Wodehouse and laugh.

Lessing, Doris : The Golden Notebook. London: Harper Perennial, 1962, 1972. I bought this book in London. 2007 NOBEL PRIZE FICTION WOMEN RACE WORLD WAR II AFRICA COMMUNISIT PARTY 20th Century Excellent writing, compelling reading; but like most of the 20th Century not to my taste.

Wodehouse, P. G. : Love among the Chickens. A Project Gutenberg book. Kindle. FICTION ROMANCE 20th Century Farce. Not as well-written or amusing as most Wodehouse.

Orezy, Baroness Emma. : The Scarlet Pimpernel. 1905. and its sequel

Orezy, Baroness. : The Elusive Pimpernel. 1908 Project Gutenberg books. Kindle. FICTION ROMANCE FRENCH REVOLUTION ANCE ENGLAND 19th Century I re-read these books because I've been enjoying a CD of the Broadway musical.

Wyss, Johann David : Swiss Family Robinson. Project Gutenberg book first published in 1812. Kindle. FICTION DEFOE ADVENTURE CHILD 19th Century A book for children based on Robinson Crusoe. I re-read because it is often read by children in the books by Evelyn Whitaker. I've been enjoying a CD of the Broadway musical.

Sheridan, Richard Brinsley: School for Scandal. Project Gutenberg book of play first staged in 1777. Kindle. FICTION PLAY GOSSIP FASHION GAMBLING JEW GOSSIP 18th Century A trip down memory lane--Rice Players 1967. David played Sir Toby, Andrea starred, she & I did costumes. Green velvet and old mink. Between constume changes I sat in the audience to "laugh to warm the house."

Mulock, Dinah Maria (Mrs. Craik): John Halifax, Gentleman. Project Gutenberg book first published in 1856. Kindle. FICTION ROMANCE FAMILY MILL INDUSTRIALIZATION 18th Century A beautiful love story in an interesting setting. A self-made gentleman.

Jerome, Jerome K: Three Men in a Boat to Say Nothing of the Dog. Project Gutenberg book first published in 1856. Kindle. FICTION BOATING THAMES OXFORD 19th Century A funny travelogue and a treatise on male friendship.

Rinehart, Mary Roberts: When a Man Marries. Project Gutenberg book first published in 1910. Kindle. FICTION ROMANCE MYSTERY SMALLPOX 20th Century A mystery, a romance, in a bantering tone. Amusing.

Wood, Ellen (Mrs. Henry): East Lynne. Project Gutenberg book first published in 1861 Kindle. FICTION ROMANCE DEATH CHILD GOVERNESS JEALOUSY LAWYER DISGUISE 19th Century I have this book in print with a lovely decoative cover but re-read on my Kindle. An unlikely story.

Whyte-Melville, G. J.: M. or N. or similia similibus curator. Project Gutenberg book first published in 1861 Kindle. FICTION ROMANCE DEATH CHILD GOVERNESS JEALOUSY LAWYER DISGUISE 19th Century I read this book because of the similarity of its title to one attributed to Evelyn Whitaker (N and M) and note that it has plot simlarities (2 sisters who are identical in looks, irresponsible fathers who put their daughters in jeopardy, and artists) with Whitaker's Pomona.

Terhune, Albert Payson: His Dog. 1922

Terhune, Albert Payson: Bruce. 1920.

Terhune, Albert Payson: Black Caesar's Clan. 1922

Project Gutenberg books Kindle. FICTION DOG WORLD WAR I 20th Century revisiting my childhood. Between Nancy Drew and more adult fiction, 4th - 7th grades, I loved dog stories. Still do. Albert Payson Therhune was the first author's name that I learned.

Whitaker, Evelyn: Letters to Our Working Party. digitization proofing for evelynwhitakerlibrary.org

Whitaker, Evelyn: Lassie. digitization proofing for evelynwhitakerlibrary.org

Gaiman, Neil: Coraline. New York: Harper Collins, 2002. . FICTION FANTASY CHILDHOOD 20th Century This book was a gift from my goddaughter Sonya and it is delightful reading. Great characters. Empowering the child. Proof that wonderful books for children are still being written. Awarding book; now a movie.

Fforde, Jasper: Something rotten. New York: Penguin, 2004. . FICTION MYSTERY LITERATURE LIBRARY BOOKS 20th Century Another Thursday Next novel. Delightful as always.

Anderson, Peter: First Church of the Higher Elevations: Mountains, Prayer, and Presence. Denver: Ghost Road Press, 2005. MEMOIR DEVOTION MOUNTAIN WORSHIP 20th Century A gift from David. Some interesting ideas about solitude, simplicity, spiritual growth.

Whitaker, Evelyn: Dear.: for evelynwhitakerlibrary.org

Chiffolo, Anthony F. and Hesse, Rayner W.: We Thank You, God, for These: Blessings and prayers for family Pets. New York: Paulist Press, 2003. . ANIMALS PETS PRAYER DEATH 20th Century A gift from Adrienne. Wonderful resource for grief over the death of a pet and for creating awareness of the blessing and healing presence that animals are to us. Beautiful prayers and quotes.

Marshall, Catherine: A Man Called Peter. New York: McGraw Hill, 1951. BIOGRAPHY MINISTRY CHURCH MARRIAGE 20th Century Re-reading a book a first read in high school; exploring the roots of my faith. Also I stayed in Clifton longer than expected and had to choose a book from the old home shelf.

Fforde, Jasper: The Well of Lost Plots. New York: Penguin, 2003. . FICTION MYSTERY LITERATURE LIBRARY BOOKS 20th Century Thursday Next novel. Another amusing trip to the BookWorld..

Too many magazines make me a lazy reader.

Maps, tour guides, history, webstites--SCOTLAND!!! Loved it.

Continue to work on the Evelyn Whitaker project; now evelynwhitakerlibrary.org

kcp

Lear, Linda: Beatrix Potter: The extraordinary life of a Victorian genius. London: Penguin, 2007. BIOGRAPHY CHILDREN PUBLISHING ILLUSTRATION LITERATURE 19th Century 20th Century I bought this book in London. Interesting, informative and an easy read. I passed it along to Sonya.

Prebble, John: John Prebble's Scotland.. London: Piimlico, 1984. TRAVEL SCOTLAND HISTORY In Spring of 2008, I went to London and toured Scotland with Dee, Beverly & Bobbie. I read tour books and travel books galore as part of itinerary planning. After I got home, I read this one which I had found in a used book store. Although not a ref for current travel, it's a well written view of Scotland and the book that remains on my shelf.

Moore, James P., Jr.: One Nation under God: The history of prayer in America.. New York: Doubleday, 2005. PRAYER AMERICA HISTORY I donated this book to my church library but Hurricane Ike took the roof and my library was flooded, again! So all the books are stored away until someday...

Schweizer, Mark.: The Bass Wore Scales. A liturgical mystery. Hopkinsville, KY: St. James Music Press, 2006. FICTION MYSTERY CHURCH CHOIR sSHERIFF CHANDLER I thought this was probably the last book in this funny, clever series but the Mezzo sits on my to-be-read shelf. I'm saving what will probably be the last in the series for a rainy day.

Austen, Jane.: Persuasion. New York: Doubleday Bantam Classics, 1984, 1989. First published in 1818. FICTION WOMEN SISTERS NAVY This is a re-read, of course, prompted by my disappointment in the new PBS production I'd seen. Miss Austen never disappoints.

Esquirel, Laure.: Like Water for Chocolate. FICTION 20th Century. I enjoyed this novel in monthly installments with recipes, romances, and home remedies. A gift from Janet. Movie in 1992

Browne, Jill Connor: The Sweet Potato Queens' Book of Love. FICTION 20th Century A fallen southern belle's look at love, life, men, marriage, and being prepared. A gift from Janet. Holly loved it. A fun farce but probably not an author I'll read again..

Stewart, Mary: Touch Not the Cat. New York: William Morrow, 1976. FICTION ROMANCE MYSTERY 20th Century In my teens and twenties, I read a lot of Mary Stewart--loved the genre, loved the author. I remember reading this book and I think it was the last I read. Stopped reading the genre and moved on.

Guder, Darrell L.: The Continuing Conversion of the Church. Grand Rapids: William E. Eerdman, 2000. CHURCH THEOLOGY MINISTRY One of several books that I was reading about "the missional church" and perhaps the only one that I listed. I donated my copy to the church library.