tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-73970778461264520472024-03-04T22:52:47.690-06:00Come With Me If You Want To ReadA blog about the written word, written in words. Laura S.http://www.blogger.com/profile/14448444625422741328noreply@blogger.comBlogger421125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7397077846126452047.post-6102906955188911582021-03-24T08:30:00.021-05:002021-03-24T08:30:00.260-05:00Reviewing H. Rider Haggard’s "Cleopatra"Don’t
let the title of the book—and, consequently, this blog post—fool you. As its subtitle (Being an Account of the Fall and Vengeance of Harmachis) suggests, this is
the story of Harmachis, priest of Isis and last heir of the ancient royal line
of Egypt, and how he betrayed the hopes of his family, his country, and himself
when he found his fate intertwined with that famous Ptolemaic queen.
&Laura S.http://www.blogger.com/profile/14448444625422741328noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7397077846126452047.post-13306026564505485812021-03-17T08:30:00.009-05:002021-03-17T08:30:06.374-05:00Dear Arthur - Stick with Holmes, This Just Wasn't Your JamDespite rumors of unrest in the region, a
group of sightseers in Egypt venture too close to Dervish territory, leading to
them into the clutches of radical Islamic guerillas. These unfortunate tourists—of
American, Irish, British, and French backgrounds, along with their Egyptian
servants, tour guides, and “bodyguards”—are forced to travel farther away from
friendly territory to a fate of slaveryLaura S.http://www.blogger.com/profile/14448444625422741328noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7397077846126452047.post-28765609617645289392021-03-10T08:30:00.001-06:002021-03-10T08:30:03.293-06:00Reviewing "The Mysterious Benedict Society" by Trenton Lee StewartWhen orphan Reynard “Reynie” Muldoon answers
an enigmatic advertisement in the paper, he didn’t know what to expect. What he
probably did NOT expect, however, was to be swept into an adventure involving
three other uniquely-gifted children, a secret mission, dastardly worldwide conspiracies,
subliminal messaging, abducted children (and secret agents), and lots and lots of riddles.
Expected or Laura S.http://www.blogger.com/profile/14448444625422741328noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7397077846126452047.post-25776500036827311902021-03-04T18:30:00.005-06:002021-03-04T18:30:04.067-06:00Reviewing Elizabeth Goudge's "The Dean's Watch" and "Gentian Hill"After discovering Elizabeth Goudge through Green Dolphin Street—originally the
movie, then reading the book itself—I decided that this was definitely an
author whose bibliography I would exhaust. Goudge’s writing is unique, complex,
and thoughtful. The plots are secondary to the characters, almost each of which
is developed in exquisite (sometimes excruciating) detail. The writing is
dense, Laura S.http://www.blogger.com/profile/14448444625422741328noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7397077846126452047.post-51089471235676978602021-01-20T18:30:00.023-06:002021-01-20T18:30:00.152-06:00The Mystery of the Missing MysteryAt the end of December I was nigh-certain I was going to "fail" my self-inflicted appointed reading goal, having been consistently ten books behind schedule since The Brothers Karamazov. (Why I thought that would be a good selection to start out last year, I don't know.) So in desperation, I turned to re-reading some of the Juvenile Fiction I've been meaning to review on this blog. It Laura S.http://www.blogger.com/profile/14448444625422741328noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7397077846126452047.post-49846735069379291792020-12-30T18:30:00.001-06:002020-12-30T18:30:05.912-06:00Hattie and Grandma: Two Book Series about The Olden DaysRe-reading old favorite children's books provides an interesting opportunity to revisit childhood experiences and evaluate them from an older perspective. This can sometimes backfire; I may have loved something as a child, but as an adult, the allure is replaced by an underwhelming sense as all its flaws are now more evident. However, I would say the majority of the time it's pleasant to re-read Laura S.http://www.blogger.com/profile/14448444625422741328noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7397077846126452047.post-62072553355414684222020-12-16T18:30:00.000-06:002020-12-16T18:30:08.545-06:00“The Swiss Family Robinson,” where the Flamingo and the Penguin Shall Dwell Together, Apparently As a child, the Disney adaptation of The Swiss Family
Robinson was one of my favorites movies my grandma had at her house.
Because she only had one or two other VHS to choose from, I ended up watching
this movie a lot. There’s just something alluring about a treehouse, and
having wild animals as pets, and fighting off pirates.
My mom read the book aloud for school, but I only remembered
one partLaura S.http://www.blogger.com/profile/14448444625422741328noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7397077846126452047.post-41970633179035104952020-12-09T18:30:00.009-06:002020-12-09T18:30:03.256-06:00 Modern Medieval: The Literature of Chretien de TroyesAs I’ve written before--probably more than once--Erec et Enide is one of my
favorite Arthurian stories. I was excited to begin reading other Arthurian romances
by the same author, Chrétien de Troyes:
CligesLancelotYvainPerceval
And, for the most part, he lived up to the hype. One thing
that de Troyes does (that I haven’t noticed much in other “original” Arthurian
tales) is give his Laura S.http://www.blogger.com/profile/14448444625422741328noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7397077846126452047.post-81806107331148666202020-12-02T18:30:00.001-06:002020-12-02T18:30:07.602-06:00 Finding New Friends in Elizabeth Goudge’s “A Book of Comfort”In school my mom had me keep a copybook—a notebook filled
with favorite or classic quotations, poems, and excerpts from books, all copied
out in my best handwriting. Even though she reads this blog and it might go
badly for me, I must admit that I didn’t enjoy this, at least not until halfway
through high school. In college, though, I found myself still keeping a
copybook of sorts, as I would jotLaura S.http://www.blogger.com/profile/14448444625422741328noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7397077846126452047.post-40103196708200055872020-11-25T18:30:00.001-06:002020-11-25T18:30:09.214-06:00Reviewing “Real Love in an Angry World” by Rick BezetReal Love in an Angry World: How to Stick to Your Convictions
without Alienating People is about being a true
Christ-follower and showing God’s love to a world that is full of conflict,
hostility, and suspicion about Christianity (and a lot of other things). Looking
to Jesus’ example, Pastor Rick Bezet discusses different specific ways Christians
can relate to people in love, without judging themLaura S.http://www.blogger.com/profile/14448444625422741328noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7397077846126452047.post-72679409759908437932020-11-19T18:30:00.006-06:002020-11-19T18:30:02.692-06:00Reviewing “The Communication Book” by Mikael Krogerus and Roman TschäppelerIn The Communication
Book: 44 Ideas for Better Conversations Every Day,
authors Mikael Krogerus and Roman Tschäppeler hit a sweet spot of condensing
complex theories into simple chunks of easily-digestible information, both in
text and infographic form translated seamlessly from their original German by
Jenny Piening and Lucy Jones. Subject matter runs the gamut from Aristotelian principles
of Laura S.http://www.blogger.com/profile/14448444625422741328noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7397077846126452047.post-5606239078993953072020-09-02T18:30:00.002-05:002020-09-02T18:30:00.885-05:00Reviewing “Ulysses Found” by Ernle BradfordWhile
sorting through some of my books to donate, I found Ulysses Found. This book was one of simply gobs of volumes that I’d
pulled from a book drop when our local public school was doing a purge of older
works. I know that, at some point several years ago, I had read this book, but
I could neither remember anything about the book nor why
it was in the Donation Pile in the first place.
Ernle Laura S.http://www.blogger.com/profile/14448444625422741328noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7397077846126452047.post-92063878097339788302020-08-19T18:15:00.001-05:002020-08-19T18:15:00.535-05:00Reviewing “A Journal of the Plague Year” by Daniel Defoe This
has been a rough year. I have hardly read any good books. And not for lack of
trying.* If I have often thought of and felt books to be my friends, I have
been cruelly betrayed many times these past several months. Old, trusted “go-to”
authors have inflicted bitter disappointments such as Agatha Christie’s The Clocks and H. Rider Haggard’s The Yellow God. Even ancient writings
like The Laura S.http://www.blogger.com/profile/14448444625422741328noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7397077846126452047.post-53576413885265566502020-08-03T23:47:00.001-05:002020-08-03T23:47:00.169-05:00Sherlock Holmes and Science FictionIt seems almost natural today for Sherlock Holmes to be
linked to science fiction. Holmes is such a real character, yet somehow he is
real in any sort of iteration. There are many, many adaptations of books that I
have merely to glance at, and my reaction is instantly: “No. Oh…no. That
is no so-and-so.” I am hard to please with my adaptations.
Yet, as I said, Holmes seems to be an exception. (Laura S.http://www.blogger.com/profile/14448444625422741328noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7397077846126452047.post-58613224540387269332020-07-27T19:57:00.001-05:002020-07-27T19:57:05.937-05:00Reviewing “The Clocks” by Agatha ChristieIt started out with such promise. A young typist with a shadowy
past is assigned to go to 19 Wilbraham Crescent. Said typist, Sheila Webb, goes
to said address…and finds a corpse surrounded by clocks. Just as she has
discovered the dead man, a blind woman comes in—the real owner of the house,
Miss Pebmarsh. Sheila goes hysterical and runs out into the street, bumping
into marine biologist Laura S.http://www.blogger.com/profile/14448444625422741328noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7397077846126452047.post-56999853856966101322020-07-23T23:33:00.001-05:002020-07-23T23:33:28.540-05:00Unnerving Short Stories by Rudyard KiplingI have known for a long time that there are two basic views
of Rudyard Kipling:
1.
<!--[endif]-->Rudyard Kipling the author of The Jungle Book
and Just So Stories…thus, a children’s author.
<!--[if !supportLists]-->2.
<!--[endif]-->Rudyard Kipling, author of The White Man’s
Burden…thus, a racist.
The Kipling I met when reading the Laura S.http://www.blogger.com/profile/14448444625422741328noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7397077846126452047.post-91026262289072503692020-07-19T20:25:00.001-05:002020-07-19T20:25:02.416-05:00Reviewing "God So Loved the World" by Elizabeth Goudge“The life of Our Lord is like a great symphony. It has
three movements, with a silence between each when we are left wondering what is
happening. The first movement is the music of his babyhood and boyhood, the
second of his ministry and suffering and death, and the third of his
resurrection.”
~ Elizabeth Goudge, God So Loved the World, Chapter 4 , page 39
My reading habits do not naturally Laura S.http://www.blogger.com/profile/14448444625422741328noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7397077846126452047.post-80065944717922235662020-06-18T18:30:00.012-05:002020-06-18T18:30:13.502-05:00Expanding EmpathyI find it odd that people
who like to read are so often pigeonholed (by fellow bibliophiles as much as
non-readers) as being antisocial, solitary, and awkward. Not to say it isn’t
true in some cases, but the idea that readers don’t know how to deal with
reality or connect with other humans is flawed, in my opinion.
If anything, I think it's possible that
readers may possess an even greater
Laura S.http://www.blogger.com/profile/14448444625422741328noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7397077846126452047.post-15136814262607357352020-06-01T08:30:00.003-05:002020-06-01T08:30:08.284-05:00There’s Nothing Quite Like a Book SaleOne
always can tell the change of seasons by when the used book sales start up in
early summer.
That
is, almost always.
In
recent years I thought I’d gotten somewhat desensitized to the allure of the words
BOOK SALE. After all, for several years when I have attended book sales the
majority of the “finds” are books I already own. While there’s nothing wrong
with swapping out a trade paperback Laura S.http://www.blogger.com/profile/14448444625422741328noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7397077846126452047.post-88861147269637665862020-05-29T08:30:00.001-05:002020-05-30T12:10:44.268-05:00Reviewing "The Question that Never Goes Away" by Philip Yancey
Why?
If
there is a good, all-powerful, all-knowing God, WHY do bad things happen?
In
a world that often feels like it’s spinning out of control, it’s easy to ask
this question. And even when life seems to be going alright, the question never
quite goes away.
In
this sequel of his book Where is God When
It Hurts? Philip Yancey addresses the question. “Addresses,” not “answers,”
mindLaura S.http://www.blogger.com/profile/14448444625422741328noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7397077846126452047.post-59675283228725404652020-05-27T08:30:00.000-05:002020-05-27T08:30:00.275-05:00An American Linguist in England: Reviewing "The Prodigal Tongue" by Lynne Murphy
Lynne Murphy is a linguist from the United States who emigrated to England and teaches at the University of Sussex. In her book, The Prodigal Tongue, the humor carries a little bit more bite than Erin Moore's That's Not English!
Almost as if the author has been given a bit of a hard time over her nationality
of birth, and finally wrote a book so that when she gets corrected on Laura S.http://www.blogger.com/profile/14448444625422741328noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7397077846126452047.post-73814379523152718092020-05-20T08:30:00.000-05:002020-05-20T08:30:02.788-05:00Oh, But It Is! Reviewing "That's Not English!" by Erin Moore
That's Not English! Britishisms, Americanisms, and What Our English Says About Us
In
which the author, Erin Moore, reflects on various ways the English language is used in
different cultures.
Moore was born in Florida but moved to England, married an Englishman, and had
English children. Hers is less a study of linguistics than an affectionate
comparison of two cultures that are Laura S.http://www.blogger.com/profile/14448444625422741328noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7397077846126452047.post-75776374408326796612020-05-18T08:30:00.000-05:002020-05-18T08:30:09.263-05:00I've Read It Both Ways: Differences in English Usage From Country to Country
“…It
[a shape-shifting alien…it makes sense in context] has amazing mimetic
abilities. In one month it learned to speak English perfectly and to become well
acquainted with British customs. That is no easy feat, Bunny. There are
thousands of Frenchmen and Americans who have been here for some time who have
not yet comprehended the British language, temperament, or customs. And these
are Laura S.http://www.blogger.com/profile/14448444625422741328noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7397077846126452047.post-24023355141588796432020-05-13T08:30:00.000-05:002020-05-13T08:30:11.861-05:00Reviewing "Snow & Rose" by Emily Winfield Martin
I’m
not sure exactly what “flavor” of fantasy Snow
& Rose evokes. All I know is that if you can judge a book by its cover,
Snow & Rose’s writing style fits
the cover art (and illustrations) perfectly. It’s simplistic, sweet, folksy,
sentimental, and tinged by a little bit of Grimm-esque creepiness. It’s a
“modern” retelling of the fairy tale Snow
White and Rose Red (no, not that
Laura S.http://www.blogger.com/profile/14448444625422741328noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7397077846126452047.post-57814029446202515622020-05-11T08:30:00.000-05:002020-05-11T08:30:03.125-05:00Reviewing "Threads Around the World" by Deb Brandon
I originally put this on hold at my library on a whim, not even really looking past
the title of the book and thinking it must be one of those how-to books about
embroidery that I sometimes enjoy perusing. The kind of books with a lot of pictures
that are easy to read through in an afternoon.
When
I picked up the book at my library I almost didn’t start reading it. Firstly,
it was muchLaura S.http://www.blogger.com/profile/14448444625422741328noreply@blogger.com0