Beyond Opinion :: Reading to Know 2012 Bookclub

Sky chose Beyond Opinion: Living the Faith We Defend which is edited by Ravi Zacharias for our January book club read. I'm blaming her for the read and thanking her at the same time. To be perfectly honest, this book was a lot to take. It's meaty in a most fabulous way. It's scary looking too, and that's unfortunate because it is an incredibly worthwhile read. Still, it is difficult. (I am seriously intimidated by it, truth be told!)

To continue on in the vein of complete honesty, neither Sky nor I were able to finish the book. It's just plain difficult to muddle through. (She got much further than I did. My C.S. Lewis class got in the way of my ability to read as much as I'd like of this book or my Montgomery choices this month! I'm telling myself not to feel guilty but to just keep doing as much as I can. That said, both Sky and I have every intention of finishing Beyond Opinion over the course of the next few weeks (hopefully.)

If you either started reading or (gloriously!) finished reading the book, please write up your post sharing your thoughts and link your post in the comment section. If you do not have a blog but want to comment on the read, we welcome you to do so! Join in and share your thoughts below!

This post will remain up as-is, so you can feel free to link your thoughts up in the comment section at any time.

Sky kindly wrote up some thoughts to share of the book but then we both read my friend Tim's post about this book over on his site, Diary of an Autodidact and we agreed to just point you off in his direction.

Tim makes the statement early on in his review that, "We as a culture have forgotten how to think." Reading his complete thoughts encouraged me to keep pressing on through this book and wrestle with the hard thoughts and arguments which are presented within the pages of Beyond Opinion. We have forgotten how to think and we don't like being forced to do it.

Let me rephrase that.

I have forgotten how to think and I don't like being forced to do it.

But if I do not exercise my brain and wrestle with these very issues then my faith will be weakened and watered down. And what, then, will I be passing down to my children?

I'm going to finish this book and I not only invite you to do so, but I encourage you to do so. For your own good. Even if it is hard.

Again, check out Tim's post HERE. Link and/or share your thoughts below in the comment section and we'll get this conversation started!

LMM Giveaway #4

The winners of the following contests, as selected by Random.org, are as follows:

Tales of Avonlea DVD - Shonya (Who will no longer be a verybadperson.)
Pat of Silver Bush - #1 Annette

Congrats, ladies!

Now, on to the last Montgomery-related giveaway for this particular Reading Challenge . . .




Here's another set I picked up this past year . . .

The Story Girl and its sequel, The Golden Road.

These books are Don't Miss titles, especially if you are a fan of the Road to Avonlea television series. If you've watched the series on tv then you might run across a familiar episode or two in the reading.

Would you like me to ship these books your direction? Simply leave a comment below. (If you are participating in the Lucy Maud Montgomery Reading Challenge and have written up a post linking back and telling me so, please feel free to leave a second comment for a second entry.) This contest will be open to U.S. and Canadian residents and it will be open through Monday, January 30th. (This contest will only run the weekend so that I can wrap it up, along with the LMM Reading Challenge, on the 31st. We're in the home stretch now!)

I hope you have (participated in) and enjoyed this Reading Challenge! I hope that if you haven't had a chance to read Montgomery, you'll give her a chance. Perhaps this contest will provide you with that opportunity. Happy Reading!

Funny Frank, by Dick King-Smith :: Read Aloud Thursday

Time for another Read Aloud Thursday hosted by Amy at Hope is in the Word.

(To link up to Read Aloud Thursdays, click over to Hope is in the Word.)

We're on a roll with Dick King-Smith but I'm kind of ready to get off this little kick. As I mentioned when I talked about The Water Horse - (click to review, then find the book and read it) - King-Smith is sort of a hit-or-miss author for us. Funny Frank was another miss. At least for me.

The gist of Funny Frank is this: Frank is a chicken who wants to be a duck. He keeps wandering into the pond even though his feathers aren't water proof and he lacks the necessary webbed feet. He isn't designed to be a duck, but he wants to be one. His mother is ashamed of him and wants nothing to do with him. Thankfully for Frank, his human friends understand his wish to swim and make him a "swimming suit" and create some rather fantastic webbed feet to allow him to live his dream and be with the ducks.

Frank is happy enough until he grows up and realizes that there are nice aspects to being a chicken. One can scratch in the dirt and run in the meadow, among other things. In order to coax Frank back into chickenhood, his human friends bring him a female chicken whom he falls head over heels in love with and they presumably live happily ever after - as chickens, of course.

On its face, I suppose Funny Frank could be just that - funny. But my modern mind links this story to various political and social situations and I simply found it difficult to be amused. Frank earned the title of "Funny" not because he was funny in a "ha ha" sort of way but in a "you're an odd duck" (literally) sort of way. Peculiar is the word that is used. This story caused me to finally get around to looking up a little bit of information on King-Smith to see if perhaps there was an agenda behind this tale. In short, I believe the answer is no. (You can correct me in the comment section if you believe otherwise. I'd be curious to hear from someone else who has read this story.)

I had no idea that King-Smith wrote over a hundred stories, the first being published in 1978. (He only died this past January, 2011.) Funny Frank was published in 2001 and so I'm suspicious as to what King-Smith was trying to communicate, ultimate, with this particular story. A few websites referenced it as being a sort of retelling of The Ugly Duckling and I can certainly see that. I'm just not sure what else I'm supposed to see - if anything. I certainly am not a fan of reading books to my five year old with political/social arguments attached and because I feel like King-Smith was arguing a point it just didn't sit well with me. (I'm purposefully being rather discrete with this post, but I suspect the regular readership around these parts will catch on to the issue I'd be concerned with by reading the above paragraph describing the storyline.)

These were the things I didn't care for in the book:

1. Feeling like the author was arguing that we should be who we feel we are but not who we were created to be;

2. The relationship between Frank and his mother. At the beginning of the story she is trying to figure out why he is spending so much time with the ducks instead of the chickens. He responds that the ducks are much more clever and implies that she is a "stupid chick" who doesn't know what she's talking about. He shows little respect for his mother and scorns her. She is portrayed as an airhead who doesn't have a clue about life in general and is extremely judgmental towards Frank's swimming suit; and

3. The romantic relationship introduced at the end of the story involving Frank and the hen who is brought to the farm to 'lure Frank back to the fold.' The way that Frank and the hen relate to each other is perfectly juvenile and I couldn't even bring myself to read this conversation out loud to Bookworm1:

"Hello, handsome," said the pullet. "Where have you been all my life?"

Inside a wet suit, thought Frank. "I think we've met before," he gulped.

"We certainly have not," replied the speckled pullet. "The only guy I've met since I arrived last evening was a weird-looking wally dressed up as a duck. As different from you as could be, lover boy."

I made them speak much more plainly when I brought them to life out loud.

It is with some relief that I can say that Bookworm1 didn't seem to care much about this story. It was a fast read and there are pictures on every page so we moved through it very quickly. I don't think he caught on to any of the underlying messages which may and/or may not exist (on purpose) here. I shelved the love-talk and we completed the story and moved right on to another book. There are serious doubts in my head that Bookworm1 will even remember this story and I have to say I won't be keeping it around to refresh his memory or introduce this particular story to any of my other kids. We'll just say goodbye to Funny Frank and move on.

Obviously this is not one I recommend. That said, have I mentioned The Water Horse? If you write over one hundred books, I suppose you're allowed a gem or two! :)

The Golden Road, by Lucy Maud Montgomery

To be honest, I wasn't sure if I was going to make it through another Lucy Maud Montgomery book this year. As I mentioned the other day, I started taking a C.S. Lewis class which has stolen away my reading time. (Not that I have huge objections because it's an amazing opportunity. I'm simply finding myself out of time to read hardly anything else! I'm not sure if I'll be able to meet all of my Montgomery goals this month but I did want to strive to finish The Golden Road while I still had The Story Girl (linked to my review) fresh on my mind. Oh, but I am so glad that I took the time to travel back to Avonlea and visit with the King cousins!

The Golden Road was first published in 1913, and is sandwiched between the publishing of Chronicles of Avonlea (1912) and Anne of the Island (1915). This is the first book she composed as a married woman.

I think one of the most interesting things to note in this book is the relationship between The Story Girl and her father, who returns to collect her from her King relations, thus breaking up the happy band of cousins. Maud, it is said, put quite a bit of herself into the character of The Story Girl. Maud's own father left her in the care of her grandparents as she was growing up, traveled west and eventually remarried. Maud never got along with her stepmother and greatly longed for a loving relationship with her father. It's interesting then to note that she allowed The Story Girl the privilege of a relationship with a father who loved her dearly but was not "tied" to any other relationship, excepting that of parent and child.

This particular story, although the sequel to The Story Girl, does not feature Sara Stanely as exclusively as in the first book. Instead, Montgomery focuses more on the King cousins as a collection of young children roaming about Prince Edward Island. I thought she was much more descriptive about the Island itself and I wonder if this is in part due to the fact that she had married and moved away from it. The story very much reads as one who has loved the Island and had to say good-bye to it. In fact, all of the cousins have to say goodbye to one another at the end of the story and it is absolutely heartbreaking. (I confess! I cried! I positively HATE good-byes myself and generally refuse to make them! I'm more of a "see ya later!" sort of gal.)

In some ways this book is bittersweet because Montgomery very clearly is drawing the cousins' time together to a close. She hints at what each of their individual futures tell (which I'm certain was helpful in creating the Road to Avonlea television series!) but there are no absolutes to rest in. Still, there are things to love and laugh about when reading along.

I believe I got the most chuckles out of the children setting out to make new year's resolutions. Given the time of the year that I'm reading this story again, I found it particularly amusing.

"I can't think of any resolutions I want to make," said Felicity, who was perfectly satisfied with herself.
"I could suggest a few to you," said Dan sarcastically.
(Chapter 4, New Year's Resolutions)

~~~~~~

"I shall try to be cheerful and smiling all the time," wrote Cecily.
"You are, anyway," said Sara Ray loyally.
"I don't believe we ought to be cheerful all the time," said the Story Girl. "The Bible says we ought to weep with those who weep."
"But maybe it means that we're to weep cheerfully," suggested Cecily.
"Sorter as if you were thinking, 'I'm very sorry for you but I'm mighty glad I'm in in the scrape too," said Dan."
(Chapter 4, New Year's Resolutions)

Montgomery's books make me happy. Every year I say that I should read them all throughout the year and not just in January. Perhaps that ought to be the way because I simply delight in relaxing back with funny, peculiar friends and just being.

"And so that beautiful day went away from us, slipping through our fingers as we tried to hold it. It hooded itself in shadows and fared forth on the road that is lighted by the white stars of evening. It had been a gift of Paradise. Its hours had all been fair and beloved. From dawn flush to fall of night there had been naught to mar it. It took with it its smiles and laughter. But it left the boon of memory." (Chapter 26, Uncle Blair Comes Home)

Indeed, her books leave me with pleasant memories and so I'm not going to say goodbye to these friends. I'm only saying "see ya later!"

New Blog :: Living Like a Narnian

Because I needed another blog, right?



Check out Living Like a Narnian!

Surprised? Confused? Hopefully this little Q&A will help to sort things out a bit:

Q: Did you really need another blog?

A: Depends on who you ask and how you look at things. I wanted something that wasn't confined to any particular topics (i.e., books.) Although Living Like a Narnian does involve books, it's not in the way you might think. Living Like a Narnia will be more inclusive as to various aspects of my personal life.

Q: Are you still keeping Reading to Know?

A: You bet! Absolutely!

Q: Will you be posting as much at Living Like a Narnian as you do at Reading to Know?

A: No, not likely. I still have time constraints. I imagine I'll post there around twice a week on average.

Q: Why did you decide to do this?

A: Sometimes I've been annoyed by the constraints placed on me by the title alone of Reading to Know. Sure, I could make this corner of the blog universe more all-inclusive when it comes to sharing life but I don't think it is the appropriate spot. As I describe over at Living Like a Narnian, Reading to Know traps me in one moment of time. On the other site I can expand on my thoughts and life applications.

I want to be quick to point out that just like Reading to Know, Living Like a Narnian is something of a personal diary. Never thought my "diary" would be so public but....there 'tis.

Bloggy friend Annette - (who I'm certain would be a real life friend if she lived closer!) - was talking about some of her ideas in an e-mail which got me to thinking about starting another blog. Her conversation caused some thoughts to gel in my mind. SO if you get annoyed by the fact that I'm writing in two places, well, just blame Annette.

(Psst! You can find her on her newly unveiled site: This Simple Home.)

So that is that. Check out Living Like a Narnian if you like, or don't. Life will proceed around these parts as normal.

What's On My Nightstand - January

I haven't participated in this meme for awhile. Well, a few months anyway. At the tail end of 2011 I was trying to wrap up my reading lists for the year. But now we're in a fresh new year and I'm back with the Nightstand posts (which are still my favorite meme hosted by 5 Minutes for Books!)

So what is on my Nightstand this coming month?

1. I'm going to (re-)read Little House in the Big Woods as part of Barbara H's LIW Reading Challenge which she is hosting during the month of February. (Click on the link to find out more about that!)



2. Of course, I'm going to read Running Away to Home: Our Family's Journey to Croatia in Search of Who We Are, Where We Came From, and What Really Matters, by Jennifer Wilson as part of the Reading to Know 2012 Online Bookclub. (Feel free to hop in any month you like!)



3. I'm going to re-read The Mysterious Benedict Society with my in-town bookclub. (Because it's my month to pick. Heh heh.)


*insert cheesy grin*

4. I finished reading through the Book of Genesis (Bible) this month and so next month I plan on re-reading it again and diving into Gleanings in Genesis, by A. W. Pink.



5. Lastly, I'm taking a C.S. Lewis class at our local University this term which has been extremely mentally exhausting interesting. It's also rather demanding on my reading time at the present. I was caught a little off-guard as to the timing of this class and my ability to attend at all came together last minute. As a result, An Experiment in Criticism has been left half-read (but I think I will be able to understand more of it after this class.) By the time this posts, I'll have just finished reading The Abolition of Man. Next in line is The Problem of Pain.



It's a little C.S. Lewis heavy around here at the moment but that's ok. I don't think that's necessarily a bad thing. (ha!) It does stretch me, however. I don't find Lewis' non-fiction very easy to get through. I'm glad for the class because I'm able to grasp hold of a bit more than I know I would have were I all on my own.

All of the above is more or less what's on my nightstand for the coming month. I have a few other odds and ends to throw into the mix, as always, but these are the staples for the month and the books I simply MUST get through.

Onward and upward! What do you have planned to read in the next month? Looking forward to checking out everyone else's Nightstand posts, per usual.

Animotion Books

I have to say that these books arrived on our doorstep just in time. We had gone out of town last weekend and came home to a frightening medical emergency involving Bookworm1. Daddy was hightailing it to the doctor with the oldest while I stayed home with the youngest, unpacking suitcases and opening the mail. I was delighted to open up a package and discover these books which I promptly sat down and looked through with Bookworms 2 and 3.



If you are unfamiliar with Animotion books then you are in for a delightful treat. These aren't your run of the mill picture books. On each page, there is an animation (or animotion) which brings the picture to life. Tilt the book ever-so-slightly up and down or side to side while reading and bunnies truly do hop and chicks hatch out of their eggs. Hop, Pop, and Play is one of Accord Publishing's mini animotion books. Their mini books are about 6 1/2" x 6 1/2", which makes them easy for little hands to hold on to.

Hop, Pop, and Play is a Spring-ish title displaying lots of animals playing outdoors in a fresh, green world. Each page has but one simple sentence on it so they are most suitable for your beginning readers (or those who are familiarizing themselves with the concept of books.) We read, "Piglets play in the mud." On the opposing page we see a piglet shaking itself in a mud puddle. Ducklings splash and lambs jump. These are fun books to look at.



On the Go is another book in their mini animotion series which, as you've likely deduced, focuses on transportation. In this particular book we witness submarines diving in the water, snowboarders "whoosh" down the hill and race cars speeding around a track. This one held great appeal to Bookworm2 (age 2 3/4) although due to the fact that there is only one sentence per page, he didn't exhibit as much interest in sitting and reading it so much as much looking at the pictures move.

When Bookworm1 (age 5) arrived home from the doctor, he glanced through the book but beyond browsing the books once, they didn't hold that much appeal. These books are not earmarked for a particular age group and I don't necessarily think that they should be. After all, even I'm curious to look at the pictures and see how they move! That said, I do think that they are a great deal more appropriately suited for ages 12 months to 2 years. They would hold the most value to the youngest readers among us, I think.

These books were a wonderful distraction to us in our Moment of Need and they've been carted around the house for the past week with the younger two spending the most time looking at the pictures.

Thanks, Accord Publishing, for sending these our way for us to check out!

LMM Giveaway #3

Over the course of the last year I managed to pick up the first book in a two book series: Pat of Silver Bush. (Mistress Pat being the sequel.)

It's been a long time since I've read these particular titles! Just looking at this book and holding it in my hands makes me want to drop everything and read it right now! I guess I can just hope it makes you want to do the same and perhaps meet a character of Montgomery's that you've not yet met before.

Would you care to win this title? Simply leave a comment below. (If you are participating in the Lucy Maud Montgomery Reading Challenge and have written up a post linking back saying so, please feel free to leave a second comment for a second entry.) This contest is open to U.S. and Canadian residents and will be open through Thursday, January 26th.

Just doin' my part to spread the Montgomery love around a little! Happy Reading!

******

The winners of last week's contest are as follows:

#6 - Queen of Carrots
#12 - Mary Bailey

I've contacted both of the winners and will get their books to them shortly!

Let the Hurricane Roar, by Rose Wilder Lane

I first read Let the Hurricane Roar, by Rose Wilder Lane, when I was fourteen-ish. (Somewhere around there.) For me, at that time, this book could be called a romance. Marked for ages 10 and up, the back of the book describes it as follows:

"Newlyweds Molly and David are only sixteen and eighteen years old when they head west to the unclaimed land there. But they work hard, and at first their new life is full of promise: the wheat is high, their dugout is warm and cozy, and a new baby is born to share their happiness. Then disaster strikes, and David must go east for the winter to find work. Molly is left alone with the baby - with nothing but her own courage to face the harsh prairie winter."

When I read it as a teen I was thinking how romantic it was to set of west with the love of your life at sixteen years old. My thirty three year old self picked it back off the shelf shortly after the holidays to give it a re-read. At a mere 118 pages, this is a quick read and I pleasantly filled up one of the children's nap times reading it. It is a pleasant read, but this time I looked upon it a bit differently.

For starters, Let the Hurricane Roar is way more than a romance. How many middle aged couples do you know that would strike out into unknown territory, face and fight illness, debt, the addition of children to their family and still declare they love each other and are going to keep sticking things out? All this while being cold and facing hunger, knowing that if they did not continue to work from dawn to dusk they would not be able to survive. How many middle aged couples in this century, with electricity and countless "modern conveniences" would declare that so long as they have each other, they can face anything? Even potential (or an actual) death? I suggest that our modern day society not only has no idea what hard work really is, but tend to choose the "opt out" button whenever they think that something might have the potential of causing them great pain or anguish. (I'm speaking generally, obviously, but generally speaking we're seeing a rise in the divorce rate that is sad to behold.)

Marriage is hard work. It isn't easy and it isn't always fun. You must learn to put Self to death and think about another person and your combined goals and dreams. (Let's be honest - putting Self to death can be perfect agony at times.) Add children to the mix and your life is totally not your own (and you wonder why you ever thought it was to begin with!) When life pushes in, it's hard to learn how to push back - together. It can be learned. It must be learned. But it is a hard lesson to learn, at that.

Now, I'm not one to read romances as a general rule because I don't find them to be truthful. I typically try to discourage people - especially unmarried teen girls/women - from reading romances because they simply are not accurate in the way that they portray the marriage relationship. (Frequently they don't even portray the marriage relationship which is about half of the problem. Such books take you through the most romantic phase of a relationship and stop before things start to become work.)

I rather like Let the Hurricane Roar though because the book begins with the marriage and allows you to get to know the couple. If I were to hand over a book about a fictional relationship to my daughter when she became a teen, this would probably be the book. Molly and David's relationship is not necessarily realistic to the modern audience - (only because you do not seen many people working to exhibit the traits that Molly and David exhibited these days) - but it is ideal (and, quite frankly, it is attainable.) This story presents a relationship that gives one something to aspire to. A woman deciding that she is going to be a help-meet to her husband, no matter the personal cost, is something to admire and learn from. In this book Molly is called upon to sacrifice a great deal: family, security, and possible food and shelter. She sacrifices these things for the sake and privilege of being David's help-meet. She is fearful and afraid at times but she acts out of love and respect in a very Biblical way which I can truly appreciate.

David is supposed to be the head of his family, caring and providing for Molly and their young son. He is to love her and listen to her. He does both, in a very realistic way, I think. He faces great challenges and discouragement. When he first marries her, he is full of optimism as they head west. Then real life smacks him in the face and the full weight of his new responsibilities come crashing down on his head and he struggles with this in the book. Again, I think this is very realistic.

Rose Wilder Lane creates a female that females can identify with. Molly wants to be strong, but she knows she must put aside her fears and support her husband no matter what her emotions may be telling her to do. David wants to provide for and love Molly but it turns out to involve a lot more hard work than he was originally expecting. They both start out young and optimistic when reality crashes in on them. But Molly and David survive. Which again gives us, as the readers, something to be encouraged by and aspire to.

All of the above is almost ironic considering the fact that Lane's marriage did not survive the challenges which life threw at it. I'm not aware of all of the particular details of why her marriage failed to survive, but you can get an idea of why on the Wikipedia page about Rose Wilder Lane. I half wonder at how she could write Let the Hurricane Roar at all but then I think of Montgomery's writings which are filled with happiness and light despite the fact that Montgomery was personally depressed. These female authors were able to write truth even though they did not personally experience it as applied to their own life situations.

Marriage is not easy (and this book testifies to the fact) but it is a very blessed state (which, again, this book clearly states.) If the modern day audience could even begin to grasp the idea that hard work is good and profitable then we might start seeing a decline in the divorce rate, which would be a praiseworthy thing to take note of indeed! One book I'd hand over not just for entertainment purposes but to show the modern reader how marriage can be done is Let the Hurricane Roar. I highly recommend it. In my opinion, the story is a valuable one and a most worthy read.

****

Non-fiction marriage books I heartily recommend reading (and in the following order):

1. What Did You Expect?, by Paul David Tripp (Linked to my review.)
2. Reforming Marriage, by Doug Wilson
3. This Momentary Marriage, by John Piper (Also linked to my review.)