Witches Abroad, by Terry Pratchett

Uproarious! Taking these un-traveled women through countries patterned after Spain, France, etc and exposing the traditions of each place to the ridicule of these travelers was hilarious - I was glad to be along for the ride.

The concept of "stories" and what it takes to make an ending (ie: whether Cinderella, (or Emberella, as the case may be) gets married to the prince) is thoroughly drawn apart and put back together with enchanting and thoughtful twists. The idea that the people and their lives have to change with the times is pretty hard for one of the characters to swallow.

Mirrors are a powerful symbol and the concepts Pratchett creates surrounding their use are very creative and yet, as always, make complete sense.

Take note of all the things Granny Weatherwax tells Margret not to do.

There is some old-lady bedroom discussion that was quite forward, so for that reason this book goes on my 'not-squeaky-clean-therefore-not-recommended' list.

Going Postal, by Terry Pratchett

Lovely, hilarious; a good reminder of what Terry Pratchett is all about. I want to read more of his work after reading this one!

The idea of the golem carrying out instructions, no matter what, provided a lot of pondering material for me. So many situations are presented in the book that gave me a lot to think about with Mister Pump and his fellows.

The main character was a con-man in a former life, and his innate ability to read people and provide exactly what they need was instructive. There are so many fascinating characters with valuable outlooks on life.

The ideas presented by the wizards were incredible - and both modest and outrageous at the same time - "Not doing any magic at all was the chief task of wizards - not 'not doing magic' because they couldn't do magic, but not doing magic when they could and didn't. Any ignorant fool can fail to turn someone else into a frog. You have to be clever to refrain from doing it when you know how easy it is. There were places in the world commemorating those times when wizards hadn't been quite so clever, and on many of them the grass would never grow again."

The filthiness of the city Ankh-Morpork was something of a fairy tale to me until I visited New York City. Then I found that Pratchetts descriptions of how vile the pigeons are (based on their diet of eating things off the streets) made complete sense. There are places in the world where one can live and never have a desire to go barefoot outside. That was incomprehensible to me before I knew NYC.

"Words are important. And when there is a critical mass of them, they change the nature of the universe."

Something Wicked This Way Comes, by Ray Bradbury

I was fascinated by how different this was from Fahrenheit 451. Two completely different genres, and masterful execution in both categories.

This famous quote from Shakespeare took on new meaning after I finished this novel, which focuses heavily on time:

To-morrow, and to-morrow, and to-morrow,
Creeps in this petty pace from day to day,
To the last syllable of recorded time;
And all our yesterdays have lighted fools
The way to dusty death. Out, out, brief candle!
Life's but a walking shadow, a poor player,
That struts and frets his hour upon the stage,
And then is heard no more. It is a tale
Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury,
Signifying nothing.

There are tense and scary moments in this book and a parent should use judgement in allowing a child to read it, but I felt that it was not satanic or eery beyond reason - the author has a point to make about joy and sorrow, and a point to make about the seasons of our lives, and he makes these points exquisitely using the play of good and evil and the one caught between. It is a powerful story with a powerful message. I recommend this book especially to male tweens and fifty-somethings, and anyone who has either of those categories of people in their lives; but everyone will come away from this novel reminded of some valuable truths.

In one scene a father is looking out a second-floor window and sees his son and another boy:

"Look! he thought. Will runs because running is its own excuse. Jim runs because somthing's up ahead of him.
"Yet, strangely, they do run together."

Another contrast is drawn between the boys a few pages later,

"The trouble with Jim was he looked at the world and could not look away. And when you never look away all your life, by the time you are thirteen you have done twenty years taking in the laundry of the world.
"Will Halloway, it was in him young to always look just beyond, over or to one side. So at thirteen he had saved up only six years of staring."

This innocence vs. experience plays out time and time again throughout the book and has a huge influence on the paths the boys take. It's also interesting to note that Jim lives with his single mother, while Will has a mother and a father at home. I think Will is partly innocent because of his parents, and that his innocence and parental protection save him from wanting the same freedom Jim wants, and so he ends up in the better situation most of the time. Now, I may be biased because I identified more with Will, but that's how I felt.

Near the end of the novel Will and his father are looking for Jim -

"And Jim? Well, where was Jim? This way one day, that way the next, and . . . tonight? Whose side would he wind up on? Ours! Old friend Jim! Ours, of course! But Will trembled. Did friends last forever, then? For eternity, could they be counted to a warm, round and handsome sum?"

The 'bad guy' in this book is the Illustrated Man, who is covered with tattoos, and at once represents one person and a mass of monsters moving and breathing with one intent. When he (spoiler alert?) is defeated, it states

"[He], and his stricken and bruised conclave of monsters, his felt but half-seen crowd, fell to earth.
"There should have been a roar like a mountain slid to ruin.
"But there was only a rustle, like a Japanese paper lantern dropped in the dust."

Once the evil is wiped out, Will asks

"Dad, will they ever come back?"
"No. And yes." Dad tucked away his harmonica. "No, not them. But yes, other people like them. Not in a carnival. God knows what shape they'll come in next. But sunrise, noon, or at the latest, sunset tomorrow they'll show. They're on the road."
"Oh, no," said Will.
"Oh, yes," said Dad. "We got to watch ou the rest of our lives. The fight's just begun."
...
"What will they look like? How will we know them?"
"Why," said Dad quietly, "maybe they're already here."
Both boys looked around swiftly.
But there was only the meadow, the machine, and themselves.
Will looked at Jin, at his father, and then down at his own body and hands. He glanced up at Dad.
Dad nodded, once, gravely. . .

The main take-aways are that we can overcome evil (be it internal or external) and that it's okay to take time growing up, and then it's okay to be old. Life has a pattern and we follow it for a reason.

It's very subtle, but I think the book ends just a few minutes after the boys reach the long-awaited age of 14.

Home Learning Year by Year, by Rebecca Rupp

I chose this book to get an idea of curriculum from preschool through kindergarten, so I only skimmed/read two chapters. I love, love, love that Rupp presents books to teach concepts, such as Benny's Pennies by Pat Drisson for understanding coins, or All About Seeds by Melvin Berger for basic botany concepts. There are hundreds of fabulous picture books listed for children to learn concepts from, and the trend continues with age-appropriate books throughout each grade.

This is a list for my personal use of the things I would like to make sure the child in my life learns:

PreK:
Crayons / Finger paint
Memorization
Tie shoes
Cut with scissors
Read
Addition and Subtraction
Hollidays
Famous People
Finger plays
Volume math with cups/measuring

Kindergarten level:
Art (identify color, shape, lines; discus famous works; experiment)
Music (rhythm, melody, harmony, listen to a range of genres, ID instruments by sight and sound)
Syllables
Sequence cards
Retell Stories
Group sets / take out wrong items
Tell digital and analog time, compare time (does it take longer to bathe or change into jammies?)
Right and Left


Math
Patterns
Count by 2s to 10, by 5s to 50
Count items and write the number
> < =
Ordinal positions (what came second?)

Concept of half
Know (+) and (-) signs
Invent and solve story problems
Money
Length, weight, capacity (longer than, taller than, more full, less full, rulers, scales, measuring cups, containers, standard and non-standard measures, books: Math Counts Series by Henry Pluck Rose)
Thermometer (hotter than / colder than)

Social Studies (history, geography, civics, economics, culture {family life at different times and places around the world})
Indians / Columbus / Pilgrims
Revolution (4th of July, Flag, national anthem)
Presidents (White House, Statue of Liberty)
Globe / continents
Maps (simple too: bedroom, house, yard)

Science: is a process
Nature
Sort/classify
Magnets
Light and shadow
Living/non-living
Deciduous/evergreen
Sun/soil/water
basics of photosynthesis
Needs of animals/babies/pets
5 senses / body
Earth (Soil/rock/water/air, seasons, weather)

Again, this list is for my personal use and does not represent the complete list of items Rupp presents for children in either the preK or K levels. The lists of books she includes with these concepts is a fabulous resource. Happy learning!

The Brain that Changes Itself, by Norman Doidge, M.D.

This was a fascinating and exceptionally informative read. Our brains are capable of so much if we know how to use them. My favorite take away was "Things that fire together wire together." It goes back to Pavlov's dogs, I suppose: If you ring a bell and present food, pretty soon the dogs will begin to salivate when they hear a bell because those things go together. This explains how people can wire their brains incorrectly (getting pleasure out of disgusting things, etc) and how it is 100% true that we can re-wire those things. It takes a lot of time and effort to re-wire reactions, but it can be intentionally and specifically done. The two most important factors for changing brain function are real intent (focusing and desiring the change) and oxytocin. Oxytocin makes the connections between neurons more easily broken. Oxytocin is a hormone that is released during happy/peaceful/loving times, stimulated by things such as touch, seeing pictures of your baby, intimate physical relationships, and eating.

So many of the maladies that face adults result from neurons being wired incorrectly as a child. Truly, the family is the central unit of society, and a family that functions properly has a much greater advantage in turning out children who will function properly in society.

Neuro plasticity can erase phantom limbs, reduce the effects of autism, strokes and ADD, cure retardation, masochism, pornography addictions, and obsessions, and increase the pleasure we get from physical and spiritual relationships. It affects every part of our lives and is a powerful aspect of our brains to have an understanding of. The "talking cure," or the benefits of using a psychologist, are proved through plasticity research.

I recommend skipping the disgusting depths of pornography discussed from pages 102-112.

Here are some quotes from the book that I want to remember:

Page 41-2: "Up through the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries a classical education often included rote memorization of long poems in foreign languages, which strengthened the auditory memory (hence thinking in language) and an almost fanatical attention to handwriting, which probably helped strengthen motor capacities and thus not only helped handwriting but added speed and fluency to reading and speaking. Often a great deal of attention was paid to exact elocution and to perfecting the pronunciation of words. Then in the 1960s educators dropped such traditional exercises from the curriculum, because they were too rigid, boring, and "not relevant." But the loss of these drills has been costly; they may have been the only opportunity that many students had to systematically exercise the brain function that gives us fluency and grace with symbols. For the rest of us, their disappearance may have contributed to the general decline of eloquence, which requires memory and a level of auditory brainpower unfamiliar to us now. ... Today many of the most learned among us... prefer the omnipresent PowerPoint presentation--the ultimate compensation for a weak premotor cortex."

Page 213: "Everything your "immaterial" mind imagines leaves material traces. Each thought alters the physical state of your brain synapses and a microscopic level. Each time you imagine moving your finders across the keys to play the piano, you alter the tendrils in your living brain." This has powerful implications for positive self-talk/image and for pornography addicts. Things that fire together wire together, and we can change what we allow to fire together. Thoughts are the pathways to action. A beautiful and frightening truth.

Page 243: "Because our neuroplasticity can give rise to both mental flexibility and mental rigidity, we tend to underestimate our own potential for flexibility, which most of us experience only in flashes.
"Freud was right when he said that the absence of plasticity seemed related to force of habit."

Page 252: "This theory, that novel environments may trigger neurogenesis, is consistent with Merzenich's discovery that in order to keep the brain fit, we must learn something new, rather than simply replaying already-mastered skills.
... "Thus physical exercise and learning work in complementary ways: the first to make new stem cells, the second to prolong their survival."

Page 255: "Simply walking, at a good pace, stimulates the growth of new neurons."

Page 256: "Nothing speeds brain atrophy more than being immobilized in the same environment..."

Page 308: "Listening to an audio book leaves a different set of memories than reading does. A newscast heard on the radio is processed differently from the same words read in a newspaper." ... each medium creates a different sensory and semantic experience--and, we might add, develops different circuits in the brain."

Page 309: "The cost [of watching TV] is that such activities as reading, complex conversation, and listening to lectures become more difficult."

You Know When the Men Are Gone, by Sibohan Fallon

I loved this book, but beware strong language used in military (and family) settings. This book will leave you inspired by the incredible sacrifice that is made every day on your behalf. This is a collection of short stories that all have common characters (so fun!) and messages about current military life (not so fun, but very worthwhile).

I have an immediate family member who served in the armed forces for several years and can personally attest to many of the facets and facts shared in this book, and willingly believe the rest. This is not a book that one can convey the message of - it's one that simply needs to be read and understood by the millions of Americans who have little or no idea what our service-men and -women and their families go though every day. It was powerfully moving.

     In a world where it is normal for a thousand men  pack their bags, meet on a parade field, and then disappear for an entire year... (p9)

     She wanted to worry about ordinary things like whether her husband forgot his lunch or got a bonus, not that he might get shot or that he'd be crossing a street in Baghdad and never get to the other side. (p 22)

     He glanced up in time to see Staff Sergeant Torres, on of the most laid-back guys he knew, walk straight over to the private and stomp the radio to smithereens.

     The private leaned back in his chair to get away from flying bits of plastic. Nick and two other soldiers moved in close, ready to pull the men apart if Staff Sergeant Torres planned on smashing the private's face as well.

     Instead Torres looked down at the shards under his boots. "I'll pay for that," he said, then turned and walked back to his tent.

     None of the men looked at each other, as if refusing to acknowledge what they had witnessed. They knew there was only on thing that would make a guy snap like that, make him want to crush those words out of existence, and it didn't have a [darn] thing to do with life in Iraq. (p 177)

The themes are adult. The moods are somber. The feelings are overwhelming. The effect awakens the reader to understanding and gratitude.

Austenland and Midnight in Austenland, by Shannon Hale

       

Not recommended due to the "flame in the veins" factor. I've been told Austenland is mild for Chic Lit, but it doesn't interest me to get those feelings from reading.

Austenland is a beautiful story of finding oneself and breaking out of a self-imposed mold. The flames are limited to a few make-out sessions.

Midnight in Austenland was a fun murder-mystery romance in a modern Agatha Christie style, but the main character was quite a bit more open about her feelings and thoughts about others' feelings throughout the book. There is value in the story of a divorced woman coming to terms with her new life/love life, but I fell any benefit from the story is more than negated.

While I do not recommend reading the novel, I did find several things in it that I pondered:

• On page 68 Hale comments "Even stories need a chance to sleep." I thought that was interesting from all sorts of view points, especially given that I often read a story in one sitting.
• A fun analogy on page 84 about murderers: "She would make a horrible murderer, more afraid of her victims than they were of her, a feeble spider trembling on her web. Stay away, flies! Please, stay away!" 
• Another thought-provoking nature analogy I found on page 116: "Wind made everything opaque--wind made everything move." The whole paragraph about the differences between wind in the city and wind in the country was beautiful and ominous.
• She is drawing the silhouette of a gentleman and thinks, "It was an odd exercise. While she worked, he was free to gaze upon her, but she could only observe his shadow. She supposed that was always true--he saw her, the real Charlotte, while all she knew of him was the shadow of himself, this character he played. The thought gave her a shiver." (p 131)
• A final thought provoking moment from page 180 - she remembers playing chase with her mother in childhood: "Upon the shout of "Safe, safe!" any non-carpeted place automatically would become safe--a chair, a stool, a bed, a book, a blanket. They'd need a moment to know they were okay, but they'd never stay still for long. Seconds later, they'd take off again, hoping Mom was on their heels. / What fun was safe?" An ominous memory in the middle of a murder mystery...

River Secrets and Forest Born, by Shannon Hale

  

I loved that River Secrets is written from a male's point of view. There is not enough good literature for young men out there. Razo seems to have a good head on his shoulders and learns many valuable lessons in the course of the story, despite his not being in possession of one of the amazing gifts that grace Shannon Hale's world of Bayern. A girl does straddle him with no good intentions, but he is uncomfortable and works his way through the situation.

Razo's sister, Rin, narrates Forest Born. The book is not what I expected. The gift works differently than anyone expects and creates a more beautiful balance in Rin's life than any of the other gift-bearers will be able to enjoy.

At one point some women are traveling without many supplies and they enter a house with fresh-baked bread. "That was the smell of home, and her ma, and the warm cottage when rainstorms seethed outside. It was a hard, hard thing to lose a home full of bread and Ma."

Later Rin and Razo have a tough decision to make, and Rin decided "She would risk herself. It was her gift to give." That is a beautiful statement of selflessness and is very characteristic of the woman Rin is becoming.

One of Razo's comments also struck me: "I'm not the smartest boy, I know that. Maybe that's not such a bad thing--smarts seem like a load of fancy clothes that you have to wear all the time, and they're heavy and rip easily even though you're supposed to keep them clean. A hassle, that's what that is." There are different kinds of 'smart' and Razo has his own, as he proves in the following sentences, but the idea that smart people feel they have to 'put on' for others is an interesting one to ponder. If you are smart there are things you can draw from that, and if you feel you are not, there is also a valuable lesson in that.

I felt that Forest Born was not quite as well written - there were a couple cheesy moments and a few crossed facts, but the core knowledge that Rin gains through the events in the book are a powerful and long accepted truth that will better any young adult who reads about it.

Spoiler alert: Rin learns that the trees act like a mirror, reflecting herself to her. When something ugly is in her soul or has marred her actions, she cannot find peace in the trees because she does not have peace within herself. She learns that she must repent to find peace again. This is important is a complex and powerful way. Where much is given, much is required.

The Glass Castle, by Jeannette Walls

A beautiful, ugly, and moving story of "real life." Jeannette details the fun of her childhood, moving from town to town, leaving the creditors behind. When she and her siblings started going to school they figured out that life for most people was not like the game their mother played with them (ie: "Our new home was one of the oldest in town, Mom proudly told us, with a real frontier quality to it.")

Jeanette Wells tells an incredible story that takes their family across the nation and through the depths of poverty. She eventually becomes a NY Time Bestselling author, and the story of her journey into the real world is incredible enough to be almost unbelievable.

There is some moral depravity in the book, but it is discussed in a matter-of-fact way, and in such a way as to be valuable to those who might be embarking on the world for themselves. There is a plentiful amount of swearing from the father throughout the book.

Spoiler alert: don't read the remainder of this post if you don't want the plot revealed.

I understand that there are many people who live in poverty because they have to. I was disgusted that the mother allowed her children to paw through the school garbage to find food their friends had thrown away, when she had inherited land that she chose not to sell. Even if it is a Family Law that land doesn't get sold, you sell your land to shelter, feed and clothe your children. It's just what you do. Even if you don't know how much land there is, where it is, or what it is worth, you find out and sell it.

I struggle, as does Jeanette, to understand her mother, who had no comprehension that motherhood is a divine calling and one of the most important, rewarding, and fulfilling things that can be done on this earth. Mother would rather paint (and invest in paints, mind you) than care for or attend her children. I personally am all about children being independent and learning to do things for themselves. Half of her behavior toward her children when they were little was not shocking to me at all. But during that time they at least had food in their tummies and a warm place to sleep. The way she abandoned them when they were old enough to scrounge for themselves was appalling to me. That she ate food herself instead of sharing it with her children, slept in a warmer, drier room, and quit the job that was their only sustenance because she wanted to paint more - just made me ache for the children, ache in the depths of my heart and soul.

The climax of the book, to me, occurred when Jeanette was in college. Her parents had followed the four kids to New York. The kids all worked and lived in real apartments and cared about the younger ones enough to help them get started in their lives there. The parents were homeless and liked it that way.

"You can't just live like this," Jeanette told her mom.
"Why not?" Mom said. "Being homeless is an adventure." And they stayed that way, despite their children offering to help them in various ways.

Then Jeanette had the following experience in class:

One day Professor Fuchs asked if homelessness was the result of drug abuse and misguided entitlement programs, as the conservatives claimed, or did it occur, as the liberals argued, because of cuts in social-service programs and the failure to create economic opportunity for the poor? Professor Fuchs called on me.

I hesitated. "Sometimes, I think, it's neither."

"Can you explain yourself?"

"I think that maybe sometimes people get the lives they want."'

 Professor Fuchs questions her further, and she says that if some people just worked they would be fine.

Professor Fuchs walked around from behind her lectern "What do you know about the lives of the underprivileged?" she asked. She was practically trembling with agitation. "What do you know about the hardships and obstacles that the underclass faces?" 

The other students were staring at me.

"You have a point," I said.

At the time I read it, I was infuriated that she was too worn out from her life to argue the truth of her stance. But she took care of it - she has argued it in a much more powerful way through this eye-opening, heart-rending, bestselling novel.

A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, by James Joyce

If you're not a big fan of the stream-of-consciousness writing style, this book may not be for you. It's a very inside-his-head portrait of the high school and college years of this young man. It includes his fall into moral sins, those of masturbation and fornication, and the deep despair his Catholic school drives into him about the peril of his soul. There are some gratuitous descriptions of his feelings during his encounters. He repents and forsakes his sinning, but later also forsakes God.

There are many bits of wisdom to be gleaned. On page 76 he remembers "Even that night as he stumbled homewards along Jones's Road he had felt that some power was divesting him of that sudden woven anger as easily as a fruit is divested of its soft ripe peel." The power of exercise and nature to relieve our negative emotions and draw us closer to God.

There is also a fascinating discussion of aesthetics and beauty near the end of the novel, including this description of 'the enchantment of the heart':
The instant wherein that supreme quality of beauty, the clear radiance of the estheic image, is apprehended luminously by the mind which has been arrested by its wholeness and fascinated by its harmony is the luminous silent stasis of esthetic pleasure, a spiritual state very like to that cardiac condition which the Italian physiologist Luigi Galvani, using a phrase almost as beautiful as Shelley's, called the enchantment of the heart.

Though I don't recommend the entire book, the discussion of aesthetics was decidedly engaging to me and I recommend it to any who enjoy such discussions. It began on page 198 in my copy of the novel, with the statement "Aristotle has not defined pity and terror," and ends on page 209 with "The rain fell faster." I don't agree with the conclusion drawn of this discussion in the book, but the discussion itself was enlightening.