While we were on the road I read two atypical short novels by two major British writers, Anthony Trollope and Thomas Hardy. Both authors are deeply English and alike in that they wrote about the oddities of the class system, the moral dilemmas in English life, and both created their own fictional countryside to reflect their themes and perceptions. Both the novellas were early works of eminent authors who are better known for very different styles of work. I thought I would informally compare and contrast since after all, I have nothing better to do, but if you want to just skip on, the short version is that I recommend both the books if you happen to enjoy reading well-written, insightful depictions of the country from which our language originates. I do enjoy that sort of book, so I enjoyed both the books.
The Trollope novel, really more like a novella with a doom-laden trajectory, was called An Eye for an Eye.
Trollope is better known for his lengthy and detailed Barchester Chronicles and Palliser cycle. The former concern societal and moral issues among the Anglican clergy and the latter concern British political life. All his books deal with moral dilemmas that spring from the rules of upper class life in 19th century England. I read both these cycles several times a long time ago.
This particular novella draws on his experience in Ireland early in his adult life. The major events in the book actually take place near the Cliffs of Moher, which we got to visit a few years ago on a family trip to Ireland. These cliffs are the most beautiful and desolate I have ever seen, so the story of despair and tragic events seemed very suitably located. My husband Kevin sacrificed a rear view mirror on our journey to that spot, because the only road to the cliffs is a one-laner along a steep drop, and he had to pull off to the side to let an oncoming tour bus go by. In the process he scraped off the side mirror of our rental. Not a pretty picture, but much easier to cope with than what happens to the main characters in this story.
Fred Neville is the Anglican nephew of a British earl and suddenly becomes his heir.
Kate O'Hara is the beautiful, Catholic and isolated only daughter of a gentlewoman who has shut herself away in this wild corner of Ireland because of a scapegrace husband.
The rest follows from the inflexible laws of English society and religion of which fans of 19th century British novels are well aware by now.
I will not say more, but I do recommend the tale if you don't mind a bit of tragedy. I am not spoiling anything by saying this because the tragic note is introduced clearly in a prologue where the woman in the insane asylum keeps repeating over again, "An Eye for an Eye!"
Now, Thomas Hardy is well known for this kind of tragic tale of ill-starred love, but the novella Under the Greenwood Tree, or The Mellstock Quire, is quite in another vein from his better known works. While I have read several of his books, I do not like his writing. I love his style, but I dislike the post-Christian pagan themes and plots. Here I am able to get his literary style with a light touch and a happy-ish ending. I had watched the movie version of the book with my daughter several years back. It is charming and features Kelsey Hawes whom you may know from the movie versions of Wives and Daughters and Our Mutual Friend. She is so beautiful and charming on-screen.
Anyway, the book wasn't quite like the movie, which takes the love affair somewhat more seriously than the book does. But the book brings out the full value of the robust Mellstock Quire (or choir) and the humanity of the players and their family. I loved this book. Some of the humor and careful description of the prosaic elements of the English working class reminded me somewhat of LM Montgomery. It made me regretful that Thomas Hardy seemed to become so melancholic and arreligious in his later work, even though in this Pastoral or Georgic work, you don't quite see the full development of his talent.
I thought it was funny that I accidentally selected a Trollope work that was somewhat Hardy-esque, and a Hardy work that was somewhat Trollope-ian! (though not really, because Hardy's book is firmly set among the working class, and Trollope doesn't really write about that class at all).
I really enjoyed them both and if you have an E-reader, you can read them both for free in the public domain.
Showing posts with label 52 in 52. Show all posts
Showing posts with label 52 in 52. Show all posts
Saturday, November 19, 2011
Friday, November 11, 2011
A Book Post
My family went to Disney last week! It's the first time we've been there since the older kids were younger than this set is now That's why I wasn't blogging. But this post isn't about Disneyland. I am suffering from The Flu That Stayed Too Long, the same one that's been attacking me ince early October, and so yesterday I was lying around recuperating.
Since I was taking advantage of my enforced idleness by updating my IPhone's operating system and didn't feel good enough to read any of the heavy books on my bedstand, I checked a couple of books out of the library.
One was called "Fiction Ruined My Family." Great title and nice cover. The memoir of a youngest daughter of four who grew up with a defeated writer Dad and a onetime child equestrian/debutatnte mom who has become an alcoholic. I didn't finish it. The part when she was a child was rather interesting though cynical but when she got out of high school the book just got grim. To me, anyway. I was hoping it would be sort of like one of Anne Lamott's books -- another girl with a writer father who goes on to tell her own story -- but the writing was much less clever She doesn't have the turn of phrase and insight that Lamott does, at least not yet. She was not getting across a message of real humanity under the dysfunction of her family as Lamott does At least, it wasn't working for me.
The other book was called The Rules of "Normal" Eating: A Commonsense Approach for Dieters, Overeaters, Undereaters, Emotional Eaters and Everyone Else in Between . Another food book! I checked it out from the library because (1) it was immediately available and (2) I was curious about "Normal".
Anyway, this turns out to be quite a helpful book!
For one thing it made me realize rather sadly that I don't really have many food/eating/weight issues anymore She wrote out lots of lists of irrational beliefs and feelings in regard to food issues and I saw ones that I used to have but hardly any that I still really feel. I am just one of those middle aged people that can't rely on my metabolism like I used to. But basically I am what she calls "normal" in quotations because of course, there is no one "normal" -- there's a range.
It's slightly sad because those issues were a significant part of my life for so long that I miss them.
On the other hand, I should be proud because I've spent so many years working on changing and apparently, I've accomplished the bulk of it. I guess that shows that you really can change over time. As the book points out, it's not a fast process most of the time and probably for good reasons. If you could change yourself right away, you would lose stability.
So I didn't feel like I needed the eating advice so much anymore, but as an introduction to 21st century operative theories of habit forming, this book is quite accessible and clear, at least so I found it. I noticed several times that her method for working on Beliefs/Feelings/Behavior is not too different from Charlotte Mason's. So the book, or another like it, would probably be useful for someone trying to get a better grasp of what habit is and how to change habits.
This author pictures Beliefs, Feelings, and Behavior forming a triangle. Beliefs influence feelings and behavior, Feelings influence beliefs and behavior, Behavior can influence beliefs and feelings. She points out that when we have a strong feeling, a belief is often tied to it. If I'm enraged by some bad driver on the road, it's because I have a belief that bad driving is an intolerable insult. Then I may do something as a result, like drive too close or shake my fist or swear at the driver. Feelings can also affect beliefs and behavior. If I'm already high on adrenalin and rage after the traffic experience, I might think some incidental thing at the workplace is way more important than I would have if I had come to work in a happy mood
The book points out that we can modify these influences -- we don't have to just react. Engrained habits are difficult to break -- if I always head for the donuts to calm down when I'm in a rage, I will feel that pull to the donut tray, but if I replace that habit with another one, like some stretching exercises, a new track will start forming. Eventually if I persist this track will be deeper than the old donut one.
Feelings are just inner sensations like our outer senses. They are meant to make us aware of what we should seek and avoid, and they also increase our awareness and understanding in general, just as our outer senses help guide us to learn and stay safe in doing so.
Behavior is what results from our feelings and beliefs. Behaviors never come out of nowhere. They can be traced back to our feelings and our perceptions of what they signify, our beliefs.
I think Beliefs (as the author calls them) are the strongest influences, since they have a way of justifying our feelings and behaviors. Especially, she says, "core" beliefs can affect our working beliefs. So if you have a belief that you are basically unworthy, you might end up with a working belief that you don't deserve good food, or that your body isn't worth taking care of.
When she talks about "beliefs" there is some ambiguity because of course, "belief" can mean lots of things. But I think she is talking about them as "operative assumptions" rather than doctrines or statements of Faith. They are the messages we grow up with. Often our parents are our deepest influence, but there are other influences too, including our own temperaments. I don't think it's quite the same thing as our "will" but perhaps it is the content that forms our wills.
Everyone has "beliefs" in this sense, including materialists and rationalists who don't have any religious faith They can be irrational (distorted) or rational (informed by reality). They often go way deeper than our cognitive processes and in fact almost shape our thinking in some ways, providing a "framework" for perception. Charlotte Mason talks about this a bit in her work on the insufficiency of formal reasoning
The author says that it's important to keep examining our "beliefs" especially when they seem to be affecting our behavior in ways that we don't like. For example, if I have an engrained notion that I MUST clean my plate or I will be wasteful, and wastefulness is bad, then it may be good to "reframe" that belief. Perhaps I can realize that it's just as wasteful to eat food in excess of what is good for me. Then I may adjust my behavior -- choose smaller servings, plan to eat only half of what's on my plate at the restaurant and save the rest for later, or whatever.
The author says that you can usually tell nonfunctional beliefs by their rigidity and negativity, by their "all or nothing" approach and by the way they trigger panic and shame. Related to this is mental "chatter" which are those voices you hear in your head that send you negative, scolding, often ridiculous messages that are still very powerful.
Basically, she makes a case for informed intuition. Most people tend to shut away their perceptions, their inner sense of what is good or not good. So they eat and do other things according to rigid rules that aren't in accordance with reality. Rules aren't bad in themselves. But some kinds of rules are ineffective because they try to override where they shouldn't
There is way more. As with most books of this kind, there is nothing professedly Christian, but the advice tends to implicitly cover ground already broken by Socrates, Aristotle, Aquinas, Ignatius of Loyola, Francis de Sales, and other past thinkers with an interest in human psychology. Buddhism is invoked as a kind of doctrinally neutral self-optimization wisdom, but not as frequently as in many self-help books.
The author also mentions the work on Rational/Irrational beliefs done by Albert Ellis. Someone called Maxie Maultsby formulated a system for reflecting on and reframing faulty beliefs For some reason, after reading The Abolition of Man and The Grand Design, I have been sort of skeptical of anything called "rational". This term seems to be itself a cloaking device for another set of assumptions. But with that reservation, I think it can be helpful in living an "examined life". The set of assumptions need to be thought through, and this is something the author recommends -- thinking through and tailoring for oneself, since a key trap for distorted thinkers is following someone else's "system" without thinking it through, and expecting some kind of magical result. It seems to be a peculiarity of our free will (this is me talking) that it has to be home-made, a matter of relationship, not "mere" rules. We don't seem to be able to just lift "what works" from someone else's life -- the results will be different That doesn't mean we don't learn from each other, but there's a difference from learning and just sort of accepting.
I suppose we all accept many, many things because I've found it's mentally exhausting to work through EverySinglePremise in my life, at least, but when something isn't working, again and again, it may be time to think of changing. She makes the point that Discomfort + Awareness = Change. In other words, you may be uncomfortable, but until you become aware of your discomfort and have the ability to do something about it, change probably won't happen. She uses an exercise to show this. Are you sitting comfortably right now? Perhaps if you were watching a gripping movie, you might not notice your arm was going to sleep. But if something made you aware, you might try to shift your position to get more comfortable.
Long, rambling post, sorry! After I've been away from blogging for a while, I have trouble getting back into the swing of it.
I also finished reading Quo Vadis, but this is already too long to talk about that. I liked it, though.
Since I was taking advantage of my enforced idleness by updating my IPhone's operating system and didn't feel good enough to read any of the heavy books on my bedstand, I checked a couple of books out of the library.
One was called "Fiction Ruined My Family." Great title and nice cover. The memoir of a youngest daughter of four who grew up with a defeated writer Dad and a onetime child equestrian/debutatnte mom who has become an alcoholic. I didn't finish it. The part when she was a child was rather interesting though cynical but when she got out of high school the book just got grim. To me, anyway. I was hoping it would be sort of like one of Anne Lamott's books -- another girl with a writer father who goes on to tell her own story -- but the writing was much less clever She doesn't have the turn of phrase and insight that Lamott does, at least not yet. She was not getting across a message of real humanity under the dysfunction of her family as Lamott does At least, it wasn't working for me.
The other book was called The Rules of "Normal" Eating: A Commonsense Approach for Dieters, Overeaters, Undereaters, Emotional Eaters and Everyone Else in Between . Another food book! I checked it out from the library because (1) it was immediately available and (2) I was curious about "Normal".
Anyway, this turns out to be quite a helpful book!
For one thing it made me realize rather sadly that I don't really have many food/eating/weight issues anymore She wrote out lots of lists of irrational beliefs and feelings in regard to food issues and I saw ones that I used to have but hardly any that I still really feel. I am just one of those middle aged people that can't rely on my metabolism like I used to. But basically I am what she calls "normal" in quotations because of course, there is no one "normal" -- there's a range.
It's slightly sad because those issues were a significant part of my life for so long that I miss them.
On the other hand, I should be proud because I've spent so many years working on changing and apparently, I've accomplished the bulk of it. I guess that shows that you really can change over time. As the book points out, it's not a fast process most of the time and probably for good reasons. If you could change yourself right away, you would lose stability.
So I didn't feel like I needed the eating advice so much anymore, but as an introduction to 21st century operative theories of habit forming, this book is quite accessible and clear, at least so I found it. I noticed several times that her method for working on Beliefs/Feelings/Behavior is not too different from Charlotte Mason's. So the book, or another like it, would probably be useful for someone trying to get a better grasp of what habit is and how to change habits.
This author pictures Beliefs, Feelings, and Behavior forming a triangle. Beliefs influence feelings and behavior, Feelings influence beliefs and behavior, Behavior can influence beliefs and feelings. She points out that when we have a strong feeling, a belief is often tied to it. If I'm enraged by some bad driver on the road, it's because I have a belief that bad driving is an intolerable insult. Then I may do something as a result, like drive too close or shake my fist or swear at the driver. Feelings can also affect beliefs and behavior. If I'm already high on adrenalin and rage after the traffic experience, I might think some incidental thing at the workplace is way more important than I would have if I had come to work in a happy mood
The book points out that we can modify these influences -- we don't have to just react. Engrained habits are difficult to break -- if I always head for the donuts to calm down when I'm in a rage, I will feel that pull to the donut tray, but if I replace that habit with another one, like some stretching exercises, a new track will start forming. Eventually if I persist this track will be deeper than the old donut one.
Feelings are just inner sensations like our outer senses. They are meant to make us aware of what we should seek and avoid, and they also increase our awareness and understanding in general, just as our outer senses help guide us to learn and stay safe in doing so.
Behavior is what results from our feelings and beliefs. Behaviors never come out of nowhere. They can be traced back to our feelings and our perceptions of what they signify, our beliefs.
I think Beliefs (as the author calls them) are the strongest influences, since they have a way of justifying our feelings and behaviors. Especially, she says, "core" beliefs can affect our working beliefs. So if you have a belief that you are basically unworthy, you might end up with a working belief that you don't deserve good food, or that your body isn't worth taking care of.
When she talks about "beliefs" there is some ambiguity because of course, "belief" can mean lots of things. But I think she is talking about them as "operative assumptions" rather than doctrines or statements of Faith. They are the messages we grow up with. Often our parents are our deepest influence, but there are other influences too, including our own temperaments. I don't think it's quite the same thing as our "will" but perhaps it is the content that forms our wills.
Everyone has "beliefs" in this sense, including materialists and rationalists who don't have any religious faith They can be irrational (distorted) or rational (informed by reality). They often go way deeper than our cognitive processes and in fact almost shape our thinking in some ways, providing a "framework" for perception. Charlotte Mason talks about this a bit in her work on the insufficiency of formal reasoning
The author says that it's important to keep examining our "beliefs" especially when they seem to be affecting our behavior in ways that we don't like. For example, if I have an engrained notion that I MUST clean my plate or I will be wasteful, and wastefulness is bad, then it may be good to "reframe" that belief. Perhaps I can realize that it's just as wasteful to eat food in excess of what is good for me. Then I may adjust my behavior -- choose smaller servings, plan to eat only half of what's on my plate at the restaurant and save the rest for later, or whatever.
The author says that you can usually tell nonfunctional beliefs by their rigidity and negativity, by their "all or nothing" approach and by the way they trigger panic and shame. Related to this is mental "chatter" which are those voices you hear in your head that send you negative, scolding, often ridiculous messages that are still very powerful.
Basically, she makes a case for informed intuition. Most people tend to shut away their perceptions, their inner sense of what is good or not good. So they eat and do other things according to rigid rules that aren't in accordance with reality. Rules aren't bad in themselves. But some kinds of rules are ineffective because they try to override where they shouldn't
There is way more. As with most books of this kind, there is nothing professedly Christian, but the advice tends to implicitly cover ground already broken by Socrates, Aristotle, Aquinas, Ignatius of Loyola, Francis de Sales, and other past thinkers with an interest in human psychology. Buddhism is invoked as a kind of doctrinally neutral self-optimization wisdom, but not as frequently as in many self-help books.
The author also mentions the work on Rational/Irrational beliefs done by Albert Ellis. Someone called Maxie Maultsby formulated a system for reflecting on and reframing faulty beliefs For some reason, after reading The Abolition of Man and The Grand Design, I have been sort of skeptical of anything called "rational". This term seems to be itself a cloaking device for another set of assumptions. But with that reservation, I think it can be helpful in living an "examined life". The set of assumptions need to be thought through, and this is something the author recommends -- thinking through and tailoring for oneself, since a key trap for distorted thinkers is following someone else's "system" without thinking it through, and expecting some kind of magical result. It seems to be a peculiarity of our free will (this is me talking) that it has to be home-made, a matter of relationship, not "mere" rules. We don't seem to be able to just lift "what works" from someone else's life -- the results will be different That doesn't mean we don't learn from each other, but there's a difference from learning and just sort of accepting.
I suppose we all accept many, many things because I've found it's mentally exhausting to work through EverySinglePremise in my life, at least, but when something isn't working, again and again, it may be time to think of changing. She makes the point that Discomfort + Awareness = Change. In other words, you may be uncomfortable, but until you become aware of your discomfort and have the ability to do something about it, change probably won't happen. She uses an exercise to show this. Are you sitting comfortably right now? Perhaps if you were watching a gripping movie, you might not notice your arm was going to sleep. But if something made you aware, you might try to shift your position to get more comfortable.
Long, rambling post, sorry! After I've been away from blogging for a while, I have trouble getting back into the swing of it.
I also finished reading Quo Vadis, but this is already too long to talk about that. I liked it, though.
Thursday, July 7, 2011
Reading Update
While I was gone I got a lot of books from the library and I have been reading in between catching up on laundry and driving to dental appointments. Here's a list:
--1 --
War and Peace -- this is what I was reading on my Kindle whenever I had free time up in Oregon. This was the first long trip I've taken where I didn't have to bring a big bagful of books! I am 3/4 through War and Peace. It is 1812 and Napoleon has occupied Moscow. Lots of other things are happening. I have no idea how the story will end. I had heard that it's really hard to keep track of all the characters but I am not having as much trouble as I expected.
--2--
Home Education -- when I didn't feel like reading fiction, I was rereading Home Education by Charlotte Mason and taking notes. I am almost through. I realize how much of this book shaped my homeschooling. You know, one thing I didn't really notice so much on the first few times through the book (and others by CM as well) is how much she read of the science, philosophy and literature of her day and how much she uses it as groundwork or illustration of her points. I mean, I noticed it, of course -- lots of Tennyson and Wordsworth quotes, lots of references to books by psychologists and educationalists of her day -- but I just realized that this is really a Method in itself -- constantly filtering through the currents of thought of the day, taking what seems to fit with her line of thinking, discarding with careful, polite remarks the parts that don't seem good to her. This is actually totally an example of what Mortimer Adler calls Synoptic Reading. It is quite inspiring -- I want to try to follow her example on this more intentionally than I have done in the past.
--3--
Thinking in Pictures: My Life with Autism by Temple Grandin. I've read several articles by Temple Grandin and know about her life but this is the first book I've read by her. It's very interesting, especially the parts about her childhood and how her mother raised her during the days when no one knew much about the syndrome. Grandin also quotes passages from the books of others with Asperger's, which gives an inner view into the perspective and challenges of a person on the autistic spectrum. There was a foreword by Oliver Sacks -- a favorite author of mine from way back. I have been interested in the subject of autism for a very long time, ever since I read Dibs: In Search of Self when I was babysitting the sons of a couple with psychology degrees when I was about 12 or 13. I haven't quite finished reading it yet.
--4--
Bird by Bird Some Instructions in Writing and life by Anne Lamott. For years I kept reading recommendations of this book in different places. So I decided to finally read it. Very funny in places where the humor worked for me, some bad language, quite a lot of good advice. The basic idea is that writing is its own reward, that it helps make your life better, and that trying to get published or on the bestseller list isn't really an adequate motive for writing.
--5--
House Rules by Jodi Picoult. I couldn't figure out why I had requested a novel by Jodi Picoult since I've never read a book by her and in general don't read modern chick novels, but from reading the back matter I saw that it is a novel about a boy with Asperger's. So I must have read a review somewhere and decided it would be good beach reading. After I finished reading Bird by Bird, I felt like reading some modern fiction so I could sort of see what Lamott was saying about fiction coming out of living with the characters and so on, so I started reading this and ended up staying up till about 4 am turning pages until I finished the book. The plot had some weak parts; some reviews I glanced at thought that she put too much undigested research into the book, about Asperger's and forensics, for example. But after spending two weeks with Tolstoy this did not seem like a problem to me, except some of the forensics stuff was pretty creepy (so are Tolstoy's hospital descriptions, though). I am trying to figure out why the book was so absorbing in spite of some severe plot implausibilities and a lack of real development in the characters. I think it was the immediacy. Though the characters didn't seem to progress a whole lot or gain a whole lot of perspective, their voices did have a strong rhythm and immediacy. Sort of like reading someone's autobiographical blog. I especially liked Jacob, the super-intelligent but clueless Asperger's boy -- I liked his sense of humor.and I probably sort of identified with his social problems. Another thing I admired about Picoult's writing was her way of using a thread or focus idea to pull the book together -- in this case, the "House Rules" idea. That's something I really admire in some modern writers, and she made it relatively easy to follow the idea through the book, so I could actually see it pulling things together. In fact, this probably was what made the story seem cohesive and developing even though the plot had some simplistic parts and the characters didn't really progress. Maybe it makes sense that a book about Asperger's and how it impacts families ends up on a resolution of focus rather than lives.
--6--
Scattered How Attention Deficit Originates and What You Can Do About It by Gabor Mate. I got this because I recently reread Hold on To Your Kids which he co-authored and because it is about ADHD. I started reading it last night because I was too wired to go to sleep after finishing House Rules. Scattered so far looks like it is going to make the case that ADD is more about family environment than about genetics or simple biochemistry. But I am not sure yet how he is going to support the point. I do know that he is carefully avoiding the "blame the parents" line of thinking, which seems interesting -- certainly it seems like it would be somewhat challenging. He starts the book off on a very personal note, describing his own adult diagnosis of ADD and the subsequent diagnosis of all three of his kids -- so perhaps he is going to be able to make a case for the parents not being so much to blame for aggravating ADD, as being affected by it themselves and this having a sort of ripple effect on the whole family. That seems like a subtler case than many pop psychology books are able to make, but I do not know how it will be carried out or whether it will be successful at this point. I try not to look at reviews of a book until I finish reading it!
---7--
So that's the recent reading! In my library stack I have several more non-fiction books about Asperger's and also a book called Free Range Learning: How Homeschooling Changes Everything which looks like it is going to be a good read, though too packed with information to quickly devour in a day or two like I did with the others. There's also a book called The Mother Factor: How Your Mother's Emotional Legacy Impacts Your Life which unfortunately seems to be more targeted towards dysfunction than I had been hoping -- I was hoping for a less "counseling" and more general type book, but it looks like it's going to be in sort of the Melanie Klein/Anna Freud school of thought.
--1 --
War and Peace -- this is what I was reading on my Kindle whenever I had free time up in Oregon. This was the first long trip I've taken where I didn't have to bring a big bagful of books! I am 3/4 through War and Peace. It is 1812 and Napoleon has occupied Moscow. Lots of other things are happening. I have no idea how the story will end. I had heard that it's really hard to keep track of all the characters but I am not having as much trouble as I expected.
--2--
Home Education -- when I didn't feel like reading fiction, I was rereading Home Education by Charlotte Mason and taking notes. I am almost through. I realize how much of this book shaped my homeschooling. You know, one thing I didn't really notice so much on the first few times through the book (and others by CM as well) is how much she read of the science, philosophy and literature of her day and how much she uses it as groundwork or illustration of her points. I mean, I noticed it, of course -- lots of Tennyson and Wordsworth quotes, lots of references to books by psychologists and educationalists of her day -- but I just realized that this is really a Method in itself -- constantly filtering through the currents of thought of the day, taking what seems to fit with her line of thinking, discarding with careful, polite remarks the parts that don't seem good to her. This is actually totally an example of what Mortimer Adler calls Synoptic Reading. It is quite inspiring -- I want to try to follow her example on this more intentionally than I have done in the past.
--3--
Thinking in Pictures: My Life with Autism by Temple Grandin. I've read several articles by Temple Grandin and know about her life but this is the first book I've read by her. It's very interesting, especially the parts about her childhood and how her mother raised her during the days when no one knew much about the syndrome. Grandin also quotes passages from the books of others with Asperger's, which gives an inner view into the perspective and challenges of a person on the autistic spectrum. There was a foreword by Oliver Sacks -- a favorite author of mine from way back. I have been interested in the subject of autism for a very long time, ever since I read Dibs: In Search of Self when I was babysitting the sons of a couple with psychology degrees when I was about 12 or 13. I haven't quite finished reading it yet.
--4--
Bird by Bird Some Instructions in Writing and life by Anne Lamott. For years I kept reading recommendations of this book in different places. So I decided to finally read it. Very funny in places where the humor worked for me, some bad language, quite a lot of good advice. The basic idea is that writing is its own reward, that it helps make your life better, and that trying to get published or on the bestseller list isn't really an adequate motive for writing.
--5--
House Rules by Jodi Picoult. I couldn't figure out why I had requested a novel by Jodi Picoult since I've never read a book by her and in general don't read modern chick novels, but from reading the back matter I saw that it is a novel about a boy with Asperger's. So I must have read a review somewhere and decided it would be good beach reading. After I finished reading Bird by Bird, I felt like reading some modern fiction so I could sort of see what Lamott was saying about fiction coming out of living with the characters and so on, so I started reading this and ended up staying up till about 4 am turning pages until I finished the book. The plot had some weak parts; some reviews I glanced at thought that she put too much undigested research into the book, about Asperger's and forensics, for example. But after spending two weeks with Tolstoy this did not seem like a problem to me, except some of the forensics stuff was pretty creepy (so are Tolstoy's hospital descriptions, though). I am trying to figure out why the book was so absorbing in spite of some severe plot implausibilities and a lack of real development in the characters. I think it was the immediacy. Though the characters didn't seem to progress a whole lot or gain a whole lot of perspective, their voices did have a strong rhythm and immediacy. Sort of like reading someone's autobiographical blog. I especially liked Jacob, the super-intelligent but clueless Asperger's boy -- I liked his sense of humor.and I probably sort of identified with his social problems. Another thing I admired about Picoult's writing was her way of using a thread or focus idea to pull the book together -- in this case, the "House Rules" idea. That's something I really admire in some modern writers, and she made it relatively easy to follow the idea through the book, so I could actually see it pulling things together. In fact, this probably was what made the story seem cohesive and developing even though the plot had some simplistic parts and the characters didn't really progress. Maybe it makes sense that a book about Asperger's and how it impacts families ends up on a resolution of focus rather than lives.
--6--
Scattered How Attention Deficit Originates and What You Can Do About It by Gabor Mate. I got this because I recently reread Hold on To Your Kids which he co-authored and because it is about ADHD. I started reading it last night because I was too wired to go to sleep after finishing House Rules. Scattered so far looks like it is going to make the case that ADD is more about family environment than about genetics or simple biochemistry. But I am not sure yet how he is going to support the point. I do know that he is carefully avoiding the "blame the parents" line of thinking, which seems interesting -- certainly it seems like it would be somewhat challenging. He starts the book off on a very personal note, describing his own adult diagnosis of ADD and the subsequent diagnosis of all three of his kids -- so perhaps he is going to be able to make a case for the parents not being so much to blame for aggravating ADD, as being affected by it themselves and this having a sort of ripple effect on the whole family. That seems like a subtler case than many pop psychology books are able to make, but I do not know how it will be carried out or whether it will be successful at this point. I try not to look at reviews of a book until I finish reading it!
---7--
So that's the recent reading! In my library stack I have several more non-fiction books about Asperger's and also a book called Free Range Learning: How Homeschooling Changes Everything which looks like it is going to be a good read, though too packed with information to quickly devour in a day or two like I did with the others. There's also a book called The Mother Factor: How Your Mother's Emotional Legacy Impacts Your Life which unfortunately seems to be more targeted towards dysfunction than I had been hoping -- I was hoping for a less "counseling" and more general type book, but it looks like it's going to be in sort of the Melanie Klein/Anna Freud school of thought.
Friday, June 24, 2011
Move a LIttle
I just finished reading a book called Move a Little, Lose a Lot.
The argument of the book is that diets and even systematic exercise have been ineffective in curing the American obesity epidemic. Lots of people continue to put on extra pounds and constantly feel tired, depressed, alienated from their jobs and lives.
If there is one simple answer to this complex problem, author Dr James Levine argues, it is that we aren't moving enough for our emotional, mental and physical well-being. He talks about how the typical person a century or more ago would have been active during the day -- not necessarily doing strenuous physical labor, but on their feet and moving around. In contrast, nowadays, many people drive their car almost to the door of their workplace, ride an elevator to their office, sit for 9-11 hours of work, and then head home to sit in front of the TV for a few more hours before they go to sleep.
Levine emphasizes that most people who start an exercise program give it up quickly because (1) they can't find the time for it (2) they are too out of shape to feel good when they start exercising vigorously -- it actually causes a drop in their sense of well-being.
His solution: start moving more in everyday life. He points to research that shows that you don't have to sweat and have an elevated heart-rate for exercise to make a big difference in your weight and energy level. He mentions a lot of people who were able to drop pounds and clothes sizes without making any changes except for moving more.
One of the mysteries of weight loss research is that obese people really often do eat less than thin people. And sometimes the thin people are just as sedentary as the obese people -- they don't have a formal exercise program. But Levine found that the thinner people tended to do more of what he calls NEAT -- which stands for Non-exercise Activity Thermogenesis.
I remember noticing this in college -- how a friend of mine who was slightly overweight tended to conserve her energy, whereas I tended to move a lot more just during the course of daily life. My mother in law has this down to an art form -- everything in her day is activity-oriented. Even when she is watching TV or reading email, she's often jumping up to do some little thing she remembered, or refill her coffee, or look out the window at the bird feeder.
My own mother, who also remained slender throughout life, is of a quieter temperament, but she gardens, hangs up clothes on the clothesline rather than machine-drying, takes the dog for a walk twice a day, and that kind of thing.
Levine says that this kind of thing is the very type of thing that "energy-conservers" don't do naturally. But they can learn to retrain their habits, and they often find that staying active on this mild level reduces their stress and depression and boredom, and helps them take more charge of their lives.
I didn't really expect to like this book much. It looked sort of gimmicky on the face of it, in that "New Research Shows!!" sort of way. And I doubt if the idea accounts completely for all our health and weight problems in the US. However, it is sensible and I think that even aside from weight issues, the advice to keep yourself active during the course of daily life is good.
The second part of the book is a week by week plan for changing your habits one step at a time. If you followed it, you would end up by working quite a few healthy changes into your life without, and this is key, having to put aside a huge chunk of time for exercising, changing clothes, showering and all that type of thing.
I don't know if the exercise level he suggests is sufficient to get your heart-rate at target and put you into aerobic health. But it would certainly be way better than nothing. And as he points out, once you get the habit of movement, a lot of other things follow -- you generally feel more positive about activity, you might be more inclined to get involved in interesting activities that would fill up the empty time you spend eating in front of the TV, and so on.
One suggestion he makes which anybody could do right away is to make a chart of how you spend your day (in half hour increments) and then mark the activities red for sedentary, yellow for standing, and green for moving. Then try to figure out how to move the reds to yellow or green.
So if you watch TV for 2 hours a day, by setting up the treadmill and walking at a very easy pace (1 mile per hour!!) you can switch the red to a green. Plus, during that time, if you are walking, you are probably not snacking on insulin-busting junk food.
If you spend a lot of time on the computer, he recommends getting an under-desk cycle or putting the computer on a stand next to your stairmaster or treadmill. If this sounds painful remember that he is not talking about getting breathless and sweaty, but just a very light level of movement.
Personally I've been doing almost all my reading on the stationary bike (and sometimes watching movies with my family). If I could figure out a way to do this while on my computer I would be set.
When I'm talking on the phone I'm often pacing or stepping up and down on the mini-trampoline, or sometimes scrubbing the baseboards or cupboard doors, which are also "green" activities.
One woman says she tried to make everything she did "less energy efficient" which sounds funny but makes sense because in some ways our modern problem is maximum convenience in everything. We don't even have to chop vegetables in order to eat, or get out of the car to buy a meal.
This all seemed to accord with what I've read elsewhere and seen in my actual life. I liked the way "weight loss" was de-emphasized in favor of just living healthier. Many of the people mentioned in the book lost weight without making any other changes, but the weight loss wasn't the biggest change they noticed -- they noticed a more positive attitude, more energy, and less stress. So the weight loss was just one part of a bigger change.
The argument of the book is that diets and even systematic exercise have been ineffective in curing the American obesity epidemic. Lots of people continue to put on extra pounds and constantly feel tired, depressed, alienated from their jobs and lives.
If there is one simple answer to this complex problem, author Dr James Levine argues, it is that we aren't moving enough for our emotional, mental and physical well-being. He talks about how the typical person a century or more ago would have been active during the day -- not necessarily doing strenuous physical labor, but on their feet and moving around. In contrast, nowadays, many people drive their car almost to the door of their workplace, ride an elevator to their office, sit for 9-11 hours of work, and then head home to sit in front of the TV for a few more hours before they go to sleep.
Levine emphasizes that most people who start an exercise program give it up quickly because (1) they can't find the time for it (2) they are too out of shape to feel good when they start exercising vigorously -- it actually causes a drop in their sense of well-being.
His solution: start moving more in everyday life. He points to research that shows that you don't have to sweat and have an elevated heart-rate for exercise to make a big difference in your weight and energy level. He mentions a lot of people who were able to drop pounds and clothes sizes without making any changes except for moving more.
One of the mysteries of weight loss research is that obese people really often do eat less than thin people. And sometimes the thin people are just as sedentary as the obese people -- they don't have a formal exercise program. But Levine found that the thinner people tended to do more of what he calls NEAT -- which stands for Non-exercise Activity Thermogenesis.
I remember noticing this in college -- how a friend of mine who was slightly overweight tended to conserve her energy, whereas I tended to move a lot more just during the course of daily life. My mother in law has this down to an art form -- everything in her day is activity-oriented. Even when she is watching TV or reading email, she's often jumping up to do some little thing she remembered, or refill her coffee, or look out the window at the bird feeder.
My own mother, who also remained slender throughout life, is of a quieter temperament, but she gardens, hangs up clothes on the clothesline rather than machine-drying, takes the dog for a walk twice a day, and that kind of thing.
Levine says that this kind of thing is the very type of thing that "energy-conservers" don't do naturally. But they can learn to retrain their habits, and they often find that staying active on this mild level reduces their stress and depression and boredom, and helps them take more charge of their lives.
I didn't really expect to like this book much. It looked sort of gimmicky on the face of it, in that "New Research Shows!!" sort of way. And I doubt if the idea accounts completely for all our health and weight problems in the US. However, it is sensible and I think that even aside from weight issues, the advice to keep yourself active during the course of daily life is good.
The second part of the book is a week by week plan for changing your habits one step at a time. If you followed it, you would end up by working quite a few healthy changes into your life without, and this is key, having to put aside a huge chunk of time for exercising, changing clothes, showering and all that type of thing.
I don't know if the exercise level he suggests is sufficient to get your heart-rate at target and put you into aerobic health. But it would certainly be way better than nothing. And as he points out, once you get the habit of movement, a lot of other things follow -- you generally feel more positive about activity, you might be more inclined to get involved in interesting activities that would fill up the empty time you spend eating in front of the TV, and so on.
One suggestion he makes which anybody could do right away is to make a chart of how you spend your day (in half hour increments) and then mark the activities red for sedentary, yellow for standing, and green for moving. Then try to figure out how to move the reds to yellow or green.
So if you watch TV for 2 hours a day, by setting up the treadmill and walking at a very easy pace (1 mile per hour!!) you can switch the red to a green. Plus, during that time, if you are walking, you are probably not snacking on insulin-busting junk food.
If you spend a lot of time on the computer, he recommends getting an under-desk cycle or putting the computer on a stand next to your stairmaster or treadmill. If this sounds painful remember that he is not talking about getting breathless and sweaty, but just a very light level of movement.
Personally I've been doing almost all my reading on the stationary bike (and sometimes watching movies with my family). If I could figure out a way to do this while on my computer I would be set.
When I'm talking on the phone I'm often pacing or stepping up and down on the mini-trampoline, or sometimes scrubbing the baseboards or cupboard doors, which are also "green" activities.
One woman says she tried to make everything she did "less energy efficient" which sounds funny but makes sense because in some ways our modern problem is maximum convenience in everything. We don't even have to chop vegetables in order to eat, or get out of the car to buy a meal.
This all seemed to accord with what I've read elsewhere and seen in my actual life. I liked the way "weight loss" was de-emphasized in favor of just living healthier. Many of the people mentioned in the book lost weight without making any other changes, but the weight loss wasn't the biggest change they noticed -- they noticed a more positive attitude, more energy, and less stress. So the weight loss was just one part of a bigger change.
Friday, June 17, 2011
ADD-Friendly Ways to Organize Your LIfe
A couple of months I read several books about ADHD and organization. Though I am probably not diagnosable ADD, books about organization and ADD work better for me than ordinary organization books because they deal with issues at a more specific level than ordinary organization books do. .
At least some of them do. Some of them still fall into the trap of basically saying "How do you get organized? Get organized!" (that is, arrange your folders alphabetically, or whatever). This doesn't quite get to the heart of MY problem because it seems to interfere at a lower level than that. Something like "get color-coded folders and organize your incoming papers by topic" can sound like "go climb Mount Everest" to someone with ADD. It is multi-step, involves some emotional strain and sounds arduous without much natural reward, which are all things that are difficult for an ADD-type person to deal with.
An ADD-type person isn't necessarily disorganized. Rather, his brain is set up to receive information in a non-linear/sequential way. Often there are difficulties with processing, so the brain "hangs" during critical moments rather than engaging. It's like one of the older computers you may have around the house that has plenty of storage room but not a very powerful processing system so it slows down to a crawl when called on to do more challenging things. So it's not organization that's lacking, so much as spatial/temporal retrieval and processing.
The book I found most helpful of the several I read was called ADD--Friendly Ways to Organize Your Life. The title describes its format pretty well. Every chapter deals with a particular problem of ADD-type people. It opens with a few stories of people who have that kind of problem -- for example, with the issue of getting out of the house in the morning on time, it describes a young business type who is sort of classic ADD and loves doing several things at the same time and sort of enjoys the tension of getting to the office just under the wire. It also tells about a mother of several who found her family was always frantically looking for things at the last minute and piling into the car without having eaten breakfast.
Then each chapter offers various specific solutions. I don't remember the solutions for the young executive because I'm not so much a risk-taker type, but for the mother, it was suggested that she start a simple breakfast, lunch and dinner routine -- SIMPLE being the operative word, and "convenient" being the other imperative. In her family's case they relied quite a bit on prepackaged healthy snacks that you could just grab and go. Another suggestion was to have a drop and pick-up basket by the door -- where you put your keys and cell phone and backpacks and whatever you will need to walk out the door with.
Probably most people do these things naturally but they are exactly the sort of middle-level solutions that I have trouble with. Though I've made progress over time by necessity! I only have to hunt for keys once a month rather than twice a week now, and the hunt is limited to 3 or 4 possible places rather than all over the hosue!
Each chapter contains three "levels" of solutions-- things you can do by yourself, and things you can get help from your family or friends, or your professional adviser (whether that is an ADD coach or whatever). I mostly focused on the self-help sections.
The book seems to hit the target with common difficulties for ADD-type people -- like hyperfocusing and letting other things slide, procrastination, tendency to have floods of ideas at the same time so it's almost impossible to keep focused on what you are doing, difficulty in retrieval both mentally and physically, so that you can never find the right thing at the right time. Also making decisions, having trouble thinking through things ahead of time so you end up behaving impulsively, and not being able to learn well from consequences, so you repeat the same mistakes over and over. These things are not lack of organization strictly speaking, but they lead to lack of organization. But they have to be coped with upon the level that they exist.
One thing I've found especially helpful is what the book calls the Stubby To-Do List. For this, you are supposed to take a smallish pad of paper and a sharpie, preferably in a bright color, and in the morning write down no more than 5 things you really want to get to that day. You don't have to pay attention to priority or anything, just list them as they come. They are things you don't already do by habit, things that would tend to slip out of your mind without the reminder.
Then you keep the list in a handy place where it's easily visible and refer to it. If something doesn't get done you simply put it on the next day's list. But if it keeps not getting done, that is a clue that it might have to be broken up into smaller sections or that you might have missed a step. For example, if I write "call Aidan's insurance company" and find it sliding for more than one day, perhaps I have some ambivalence or I have to figure out what to say more carefully or I need to have the phone number ready at hand. It's silly, but these little blocks seem to cause problems in getting things done for me.
Some ADD coaches recommend writing a 3-item list and working hour by hour instead of day by day. That's probably for people with very busy jobs or lives. For me, the 5-item daily list works better because it's so simple. I don't usually use a bright Sharpie, either -- I can see that it's supposed to activate your brain but my brain gets irritable when faced by large bright bold writing. So I just use an ordinary pen.
This short to-do list is distinct from having a regular calendar to write down appointments. Though sometimes if I am going to an appointment and need to drop something off at the Post Office on the way, I will write that down. It's also distinct from your ordinary daily routine, though when I'm trying to add something new to my routine I sometimes write it down on the to-do list for a few days until I don't need the reminder anymore.
It seems to really work because when I stopped doing it for a couple of weeks I started letting things slide again. I hate it when my husband or kids have to keep reminding me about something, especially when it then slides right back out of my mind. So this gives me a way to address that issue.
After you're done with all the items, you throw away that page and start a clean one. Simple!
I recommend the book if you find that ordinary organization books seem to bog you down with just another layer of things to remember. It's practical and simply laid out and doesn't go into much detail about the inner workings of your brain -- it's all about trouble-shooting and finding solutions for common ADD-related problems.
At least some of them do. Some of them still fall into the trap of basically saying "How do you get organized? Get organized!" (that is, arrange your folders alphabetically, or whatever). This doesn't quite get to the heart of MY problem because it seems to interfere at a lower level than that. Something like "get color-coded folders and organize your incoming papers by topic" can sound like "go climb Mount Everest" to someone with ADD. It is multi-step, involves some emotional strain and sounds arduous without much natural reward, which are all things that are difficult for an ADD-type person to deal with.
An ADD-type person isn't necessarily disorganized. Rather, his brain is set up to receive information in a non-linear/sequential way. Often there are difficulties with processing, so the brain "hangs" during critical moments rather than engaging. It's like one of the older computers you may have around the house that has plenty of storage room but not a very powerful processing system so it slows down to a crawl when called on to do more challenging things. So it's not organization that's lacking, so much as spatial/temporal retrieval and processing.
The book I found most helpful of the several I read was called ADD--Friendly Ways to Organize Your Life. The title describes its format pretty well. Every chapter deals with a particular problem of ADD-type people. It opens with a few stories of people who have that kind of problem -- for example, with the issue of getting out of the house in the morning on time, it describes a young business type who is sort of classic ADD and loves doing several things at the same time and sort of enjoys the tension of getting to the office just under the wire. It also tells about a mother of several who found her family was always frantically looking for things at the last minute and piling into the car without having eaten breakfast.
Then each chapter offers various specific solutions. I don't remember the solutions for the young executive because I'm not so much a risk-taker type, but for the mother, it was suggested that she start a simple breakfast, lunch and dinner routine -- SIMPLE being the operative word, and "convenient" being the other imperative. In her family's case they relied quite a bit on prepackaged healthy snacks that you could just grab and go. Another suggestion was to have a drop and pick-up basket by the door -- where you put your keys and cell phone and backpacks and whatever you will need to walk out the door with.
Probably most people do these things naturally but they are exactly the sort of middle-level solutions that I have trouble with. Though I've made progress over time by necessity! I only have to hunt for keys once a month rather than twice a week now, and the hunt is limited to 3 or 4 possible places rather than all over the hosue!
Each chapter contains three "levels" of solutions-- things you can do by yourself, and things you can get help from your family or friends, or your professional adviser (whether that is an ADD coach or whatever). I mostly focused on the self-help sections.
The book seems to hit the target with common difficulties for ADD-type people -- like hyperfocusing and letting other things slide, procrastination, tendency to have floods of ideas at the same time so it's almost impossible to keep focused on what you are doing, difficulty in retrieval both mentally and physically, so that you can never find the right thing at the right time. Also making decisions, having trouble thinking through things ahead of time so you end up behaving impulsively, and not being able to learn well from consequences, so you repeat the same mistakes over and over. These things are not lack of organization strictly speaking, but they lead to lack of organization. But they have to be coped with upon the level that they exist.
One thing I've found especially helpful is what the book calls the Stubby To-Do List. For this, you are supposed to take a smallish pad of paper and a sharpie, preferably in a bright color, and in the morning write down no more than 5 things you really want to get to that day. You don't have to pay attention to priority or anything, just list them as they come. They are things you don't already do by habit, things that would tend to slip out of your mind without the reminder.
Then you keep the list in a handy place where it's easily visible and refer to it. If something doesn't get done you simply put it on the next day's list. But if it keeps not getting done, that is a clue that it might have to be broken up into smaller sections or that you might have missed a step. For example, if I write "call Aidan's insurance company" and find it sliding for more than one day, perhaps I have some ambivalence or I have to figure out what to say more carefully or I need to have the phone number ready at hand. It's silly, but these little blocks seem to cause problems in getting things done for me.
Some ADD coaches recommend writing a 3-item list and working hour by hour instead of day by day. That's probably for people with very busy jobs or lives. For me, the 5-item daily list works better because it's so simple. I don't usually use a bright Sharpie, either -- I can see that it's supposed to activate your brain but my brain gets irritable when faced by large bright bold writing. So I just use an ordinary pen.
This short to-do list is distinct from having a regular calendar to write down appointments. Though sometimes if I am going to an appointment and need to drop something off at the Post Office on the way, I will write that down. It's also distinct from your ordinary daily routine, though when I'm trying to add something new to my routine I sometimes write it down on the to-do list for a few days until I don't need the reminder anymore.
It seems to really work because when I stopped doing it for a couple of weeks I started letting things slide again. I hate it when my husband or kids have to keep reminding me about something, especially when it then slides right back out of my mind. So this gives me a way to address that issue.
After you're done with all the items, you throw away that page and start a clean one. Simple!
I recommend the book if you find that ordinary organization books seem to bog you down with just another layer of things to remember. It's practical and simply laid out and doesn't go into much detail about the inner workings of your brain -- it's all about trouble-shooting and finding solutions for common ADD-related problems.
Wednesday, June 15, 2011
Book Reiew: Hold On To Your Kids
Probably my all-time favorite parenting book is Hold On To Your Kids: Why Parents Need to Matter More Than Peers. I am just rereading it now -- studying Poetic Knowledge kept bringing it to my mind, and Reviving Ophelia described vividly the same peer-orientation behavior that you see described in Hold On To Your Kids. I like the way the authors write, and find their insight almost always convincing.
I wrote about this book several times on my old blog:
What distinguishes their book from other parenting manuals is that as it says, it does not simply offer a list of strategies. The authors say that thinking of parenting as a set of skills or strategies is one of the things that got us into trouble in the first place. Learning skills means becoming a student of "experts". In the past, people were born as parents at the same time as their children were born, and the difference between those two dynamics is significant. Plus, they often learned from what was around them -- their societies and extended families supported them and often provided perspective and some relief from the grueling 24/7 of vigilance and care. This is the sort of thing that is not so common anymore and we find we can't count on the media or the classroom environment to support our efforts.
In the past, almost any kind of parenting "worked". Sure, once in a while a child turned out bad and there were certainly harsh or neglectful parents, but the landscape of parent/child relationships looked very different than the way they look today. A lot of books talk about how parenting was better in the old days and try to teach us to act more like our grandparents did -- or sometimes, about how the kids of earlier days were repressed and punished into surface compliance, so we should do the opposite of our grandparents in order to raise free, balanced children.
Neufeld and Mate would say that the difference was in attachment and orientation. In the old days most children were more or less adult-oriented. Even if their parents were missing or substandard -- you think of Tom Sawyer being raised by his spinster aunt and Huck Finn's alcoholic, mean dad -- society tended to step in quickly and fill the void. Nowadays, and relatively uniquely, an "attachment void" created by missing, ill, or emotionally unavailable parents is often quickly filled by a peer or peer group.
The authors say that attachment is a biological event and unavoidable. You know the study about the orphaned monkey that clings to the wire "mother" that has been covered with soft hair, even if the milk is available from the unupholstered wire "mother". We attach naturally and then become "oriented" to the figure of attachment -- this makes us teachable, which allows us to meet our potential as learners. If the attachment figure is a mature adult, we are acculturated to grow towards adult maturity -- not all at once, but over time.
We are designed to be adapable. If our primary attachment figure goes away or is somehow unavailable, we experience a "void" which feels unendurable, so we look for a replacement. This is probably why studies on resilient children show that those who find a secure person to attach to, outside of a dysfunctional family, like a teacher or grandparent, often fare way better than the children from troubled homes who don't manage to build a relationship with a stable person.
If a child fills the attachment void with peers, it is dangerous because very often, peers actively hinder maturation. They feel threatened by vulnerability, curiosity, and other things that help us build towards maturity. So peer groups have a leveling effect -- keeping peer-oriented children frozen in immaturity.
The solution, when a child is pulling away and becoming hostile and resistant to parental authority, is not to "crack down" or "teach the kid who's in charge" or alternately, shrug the shoulders and figure it's a stage or that it's too late to do much. The solution is to fight to win your child back from the competition, to win back attachment.
Even if your child is not peer-attached, it's important to think this way. In the old days, parents could get away with harsh severity because everything in the culture supported their parental rights. It might not have been best for the child, but it didn't create a toxic peer situation. Nowadays, though, severity and harshness and lack of understanding and neglect can provide the fuel for a toxic situation.
The most important thing the authors say is to think in terms of "connecting" with your kid when you are disciplining. They believe that discipline is crucially important but it can't take place in a non-attached situation. People don't listen to or learn from those who seem opposed to their interests. They may obey if frightened enough, but they won't learn to value what the parents value. They'll disobey sneakily and when they feel powerful enough, they will defy openly.
The book uses a word "collecting" to refer to the act of retaining or regaining attachment to one's child. For example, you can "collect" your child in the morning when he is first waking up by a gentle cuddling time, if that's the kind of child you have. When I had nursing babies obviously that was a perfect and natural way to "collect" them in the morning. Aidan wants to get going in the morning, not cuddle, so I have an opportunity to "collect" him when we make breakfast together in the kitchen when everyone else is still asleep.
There are many other ways to "collect". If the child is already being drawn off course by a peer group, sometimes you might have to take them away from their group -- say, on a family vacation. One of the authors of the book had two daughters who went through some very peer-oriented stages in their lives. By taking them away from the environment (one girl loved to hike so the dad would take her on hiking trips) they were able to restore connection.
Connection is bound up with influence. In other words, people will be influenced by those to whom they are oriented, and orientation is caused by having one's needs for emotional closeness met in some way.. In particular this is true of immature people or children. They can't get true emotional nourishment from relationships with other immature people, but they will look there if they don't have any place else to look. This is exactly what St John Bosco says in his letter about how to reach troubled boys from the streets (who were probably peer-dependent, come to think of it) . He noted that when the teachers stayed detached, the boys started trying to get away with things and keeping their true nature hidden ("defended") but when the teachers got involved in their games and shared himself with them their hearts turned towards the teachers.
I can see where this might seem mushy and somewhat humbling to some more choleric parents, who might think the kid should do what is right and that the parent's job is to make sure he does it. Though that is the ultimate goal, doing right things for their own sake is the behavior of high maturity, which many adults never reach. By "collecting" the child and connecting with him (Ross Campbell calls it "filling the emotional tanks") you make it easier rather than harder for the child to act well.
There is a lot more I could say. Most parenting books make me slightly itchy. Either they are choleric "Make sure that kid does the right thing or else!" or they are way too soapy, declaring that children will do right if they are treated respectfully. Both of these approaches will work tolerably if the child is attached to the parents and adult-oriented, but both will fall flat if there are obstacles to the child's attachment. Hold On To Your Kids is a book that acknowledges and explains the dynamic underneath the parenting strategies or style. In real life you see great kids who are raised by parents across the temperamental spectrum and parenting style. You also see floundering kids who have parents who are great people, and you wonder "What could they have done that is so wrong? Why does their kid seem so resistant to the fact that his parents are simply wonderful human beings?"
I believe the authors are totally correct in looking at attachment first before the exterior behavior signs, both for the problem and the solution. I don't agree with every single suggestion they make and I think it could be argued that they over-extend the attachment idea to every single parenting issue but I do think that when a kid seems on a completely different wavelength and is resisting normal parental input that it's a good habit to step up on the attachment behavior while working on the discipline issue.
Just a quick note: It is not always the parents' fault if the child has become detached from parental influence. Sometimes one child is more easily attracted to peer dynamics than the other children in the family; sometimes there was a high-stress family event like death or illness that caused an attachment void; sometimes, as in the case of St Therese of Lisieux's family, there is someone actively trying to detach a child from parental influence -- Therese's sister Leonie became deeply influenced by a servant in the home during the years while her mother was ill with cancer and preoccupied with a lacemaking business. So it's not that the parents are blameable for things out of their control. Rather, understanding attachment can help you re-collect your child and bring him back == as in the Martin family, once the servant was gone, Leonie changed back and eventually joined a convent as her sisters had done.
Finally, I think the ideas in this book very well complement Dr Conrad Baars' teachings on emotional problems -- he worked with troubled adults and saw that often healing came not from psychiatric strategies but rather from interpersonal commitment -- attachment, more or less, allowing the patient to "impress" on the psychiatrist and remediate missed maturity steps. And if also fits in with the Poetic Knowledge ideas of learning being closely related to love and admiration and desire to draw close.
I wrote about this book several times on my old blog:
- Links: Hold On To Your Kids
- Why Hold On?
- Cat's in the Cradle
- Parenting as a Creative Art
- How to Bring Up Geeks
What distinguishes their book from other parenting manuals is that as it says, it does not simply offer a list of strategies. The authors say that thinking of parenting as a set of skills or strategies is one of the things that got us into trouble in the first place. Learning skills means becoming a student of "experts". In the past, people were born as parents at the same time as their children were born, and the difference between those two dynamics is significant. Plus, they often learned from what was around them -- their societies and extended families supported them and often provided perspective and some relief from the grueling 24/7 of vigilance and care. This is the sort of thing that is not so common anymore and we find we can't count on the media or the classroom environment to support our efforts.
In the past, almost any kind of parenting "worked". Sure, once in a while a child turned out bad and there were certainly harsh or neglectful parents, but the landscape of parent/child relationships looked very different than the way they look today. A lot of books talk about how parenting was better in the old days and try to teach us to act more like our grandparents did -- or sometimes, about how the kids of earlier days were repressed and punished into surface compliance, so we should do the opposite of our grandparents in order to raise free, balanced children.
Neufeld and Mate would say that the difference was in attachment and orientation. In the old days most children were more or less adult-oriented. Even if their parents were missing or substandard -- you think of Tom Sawyer being raised by his spinster aunt and Huck Finn's alcoholic, mean dad -- society tended to step in quickly and fill the void. Nowadays, and relatively uniquely, an "attachment void" created by missing, ill, or emotionally unavailable parents is often quickly filled by a peer or peer group.
The authors say that attachment is a biological event and unavoidable. You know the study about the orphaned monkey that clings to the wire "mother" that has been covered with soft hair, even if the milk is available from the unupholstered wire "mother". We attach naturally and then become "oriented" to the figure of attachment -- this makes us teachable, which allows us to meet our potential as learners. If the attachment figure is a mature adult, we are acculturated to grow towards adult maturity -- not all at once, but over time.
We are designed to be adapable. If our primary attachment figure goes away or is somehow unavailable, we experience a "void" which feels unendurable, so we look for a replacement. This is probably why studies on resilient children show that those who find a secure person to attach to, outside of a dysfunctional family, like a teacher or grandparent, often fare way better than the children from troubled homes who don't manage to build a relationship with a stable person.
If a child fills the attachment void with peers, it is dangerous because very often, peers actively hinder maturation. They feel threatened by vulnerability, curiosity, and other things that help us build towards maturity. So peer groups have a leveling effect -- keeping peer-oriented children frozen in immaturity.
The solution, when a child is pulling away and becoming hostile and resistant to parental authority, is not to "crack down" or "teach the kid who's in charge" or alternately, shrug the shoulders and figure it's a stage or that it's too late to do much. The solution is to fight to win your child back from the competition, to win back attachment.
Even if your child is not peer-attached, it's important to think this way. In the old days, parents could get away with harsh severity because everything in the culture supported their parental rights. It might not have been best for the child, but it didn't create a toxic peer situation. Nowadays, though, severity and harshness and lack of understanding and neglect can provide the fuel for a toxic situation.
The most important thing the authors say is to think in terms of "connecting" with your kid when you are disciplining. They believe that discipline is crucially important but it can't take place in a non-attached situation. People don't listen to or learn from those who seem opposed to their interests. They may obey if frightened enough, but they won't learn to value what the parents value. They'll disobey sneakily and when they feel powerful enough, they will defy openly.
The book uses a word "collecting" to refer to the act of retaining or regaining attachment to one's child. For example, you can "collect" your child in the morning when he is first waking up by a gentle cuddling time, if that's the kind of child you have. When I had nursing babies obviously that was a perfect and natural way to "collect" them in the morning. Aidan wants to get going in the morning, not cuddle, so I have an opportunity to "collect" him when we make breakfast together in the kitchen when everyone else is still asleep.
There are many other ways to "collect". If the child is already being drawn off course by a peer group, sometimes you might have to take them away from their group -- say, on a family vacation. One of the authors of the book had two daughters who went through some very peer-oriented stages in their lives. By taking them away from the environment (one girl loved to hike so the dad would take her on hiking trips) they were able to restore connection.
Connection is bound up with influence. In other words, people will be influenced by those to whom they are oriented, and orientation is caused by having one's needs for emotional closeness met in some way.. In particular this is true of immature people or children. They can't get true emotional nourishment from relationships with other immature people, but they will look there if they don't have any place else to look. This is exactly what St John Bosco says in his letter about how to reach troubled boys from the streets (who were probably peer-dependent, come to think of it) . He noted that when the teachers stayed detached, the boys started trying to get away with things and keeping their true nature hidden ("defended") but when the teachers got involved in their games and shared himself with them their hearts turned towards the teachers.
I can see where this might seem mushy and somewhat humbling to some more choleric parents, who might think the kid should do what is right and that the parent's job is to make sure he does it. Though that is the ultimate goal, doing right things for their own sake is the behavior of high maturity, which many adults never reach. By "collecting" the child and connecting with him (Ross Campbell calls it "filling the emotional tanks") you make it easier rather than harder for the child to act well.
There is a lot more I could say. Most parenting books make me slightly itchy. Either they are choleric "Make sure that kid does the right thing or else!" or they are way too soapy, declaring that children will do right if they are treated respectfully. Both of these approaches will work tolerably if the child is attached to the parents and adult-oriented, but both will fall flat if there are obstacles to the child's attachment. Hold On To Your Kids is a book that acknowledges and explains the dynamic underneath the parenting strategies or style. In real life you see great kids who are raised by parents across the temperamental spectrum and parenting style. You also see floundering kids who have parents who are great people, and you wonder "What could they have done that is so wrong? Why does their kid seem so resistant to the fact that his parents are simply wonderful human beings?"
I believe the authors are totally correct in looking at attachment first before the exterior behavior signs, both for the problem and the solution. I don't agree with every single suggestion they make and I think it could be argued that they over-extend the attachment idea to every single parenting issue but I do think that when a kid seems on a completely different wavelength and is resisting normal parental input that it's a good habit to step up on the attachment behavior while working on the discipline issue.
Just a quick note: It is not always the parents' fault if the child has become detached from parental influence. Sometimes one child is more easily attracted to peer dynamics than the other children in the family; sometimes there was a high-stress family event like death or illness that caused an attachment void; sometimes, as in the case of St Therese of Lisieux's family, there is someone actively trying to detach a child from parental influence -- Therese's sister Leonie became deeply influenced by a servant in the home during the years while her mother was ill with cancer and preoccupied with a lacemaking business. So it's not that the parents are blameable for things out of their control. Rather, understanding attachment can help you re-collect your child and bring him back == as in the Martin family, once the servant was gone, Leonie changed back and eventually joined a convent as her sisters had done.
Finally, I think the ideas in this book very well complement Dr Conrad Baars' teachings on emotional problems -- he worked with troubled adults and saw that often healing came not from psychiatric strategies but rather from interpersonal commitment -- attachment, more or less, allowing the patient to "impress" on the psychiatrist and remediate missed maturity steps. And if also fits in with the Poetic Knowledge ideas of learning being closely related to love and admiration and desire to draw close.
Wednesday, June 8, 2011
The Learning Gap
For the 52 Books in 52 Weeks Challenge
I am just finishing up a book called The Learning Gap. By the way, have you noticed that 21st century sociological and psychological books written for the layman almost always have near-book-length subtitles just like Victorian novels? This one has the subtitle:
Apparently the authors are researchers, both Doctors of Psychology. They went to representative classrooms in Japan and China and the US (Cleveland, Ohio, to be exact) and recorded lots of classroom observations and also statistically crunched lots of information apparently taken from surveys and questionnaires to compare, in detail, the differences in practice between elementary classrooms in Cleveland, Beijing and Sendai. The focus is on 1st and 5th grade.
At the beginning of the book they compare the level of academic success in US schools to that of Asian schools. As we are all vaguely aware, Asian schools tend to produce far more impressive results in typical tests that compare students across international boundaries. Especially in math, where there is easier grounds for comparing, the US scores relatively low compared to most other developed countries. They score lower in actual achievement, but higher in how satisfied they feel with their accomplishment, which to many observers seems like a bit of a problem.
So if you agree that these scores have significance and that consequently Asian classrooms are doing better than American ones in preparing students for whatever high math and other scores are meant to demonstrate that they are prepared for, then you can easily read the rest of the book as "how American schools should be different so they can be more like Chinese and Japanese ones." You might notice my vague skepticism in my phrasing. I have a theory that America's fixation upon quantifiable measurements of outcome is part of their problem and that these international comparisons only make us see things through this peculiarly Cartesian filter.
But if you are just reading for the compare and contrast, then the book is good reading because the tone of the book is very calm and research-oriented. Its format is simple -- in one area after another, the authors describe what American schools do, then what Japanese and Chinese schools tend to do in the same area. The authors mentioned that it is difficult to pinpoint distinctive characteristics of American schools without going outside the schools. Homeschooling, of course, offers a comparison with typical classrooms within national boundaries, but many educational researchers don't know how to treat homeschooling because it is individual and organic and resists normal classroom observation. So researching other cultures can shed light upon our own.
To take a couple of examples, math teachers in Beijing and especially in Sendai are far more likely than those in Cleveland to use manipulatives in a math lesson, even in fifth grade. They are also far more likely to start the class with a difficult problem, get the students' input on how it could be solved, and work through carefully and inductively. American teachers are much more likely to start a lesson by defining terms and giving a paradigm on how to solve a type of problem, then keep the second part of the lesson for independent seatwork based on the same concept.
Asian teachers are far more likely to stay with one topic during the whole lesson, whereas American teachers are more likely to skip through several topics within a lesson. They both acknowledge the need for variety to keep the student engaged, but Asians will focus on a variety of ways to approach the single topic. The pace is slower in an Asian classroom, but it is also more organized with a clearcut beginning, middle and end, where an American lesson is something like a smorgasboard.
There are some things you would expect --- Asians respect academics and achievement far more than the average American. And some things are surprising -- though Asian children have a longer school day and a longer school year (240 days instead of 180). they have far more frequent recesses, so the amount of hours in a class is more comparable than you might have thought.
If you are reading the book from the perspective of a homeschooler, it is interesting, because you can pick and choose how you want to teach. So you can reflect on some of your own educational experiences and realize that the conventional American mode isn't the only one possible.
The authors have done a good job not leaping to quick conclusions about what the studies show about the differences. Rather, they lay it out and admit there is probably more to be learned. For example, the preschool years are examined briefly but not in depth. So you get some clues about how Asian parents raise their children, but probably not in enough depth to gain a complete understanding. Asian parents think of early childhood as an Age of Innocence, according to the book, and do little academic preparation in the home, unlike American parents who buy educational games and manipulatives for their small children. But once school starts, Asian parents become very involved in academics and in supporting the school discipline, whereas Americans tend to back off at this point and leave a lot of the academic content and discipline to the schools.
This book isn't exactly one of the page-turning non-fiction ones full of real-life anecdotes with names changed to protect privacy, or interesting personal narratives that keep you reading. It is about statistics and averages. But because it divides up and compares so many different elements of elementary education in such a simple, clear format, it's easy to understand and readable, and also easy to look back through.
I am just finishing up a book called The Learning Gap. By the way, have you noticed that 21st century sociological and psychological books written for the layman almost always have near-book-length subtitles just like Victorian novels? This one has the subtitle:
Why Our Schools Are Failing and What We Can Learn from Japanese and Chinese EducationThe book turns out not to be a polemic, though, even though it might seem so from that thesis.
Apparently the authors are researchers, both Doctors of Psychology. They went to representative classrooms in Japan and China and the US (Cleveland, Ohio, to be exact) and recorded lots of classroom observations and also statistically crunched lots of information apparently taken from surveys and questionnaires to compare, in detail, the differences in practice between elementary classrooms in Cleveland, Beijing and Sendai. The focus is on 1st and 5th grade.
At the beginning of the book they compare the level of academic success in US schools to that of Asian schools. As we are all vaguely aware, Asian schools tend to produce far more impressive results in typical tests that compare students across international boundaries. Especially in math, where there is easier grounds for comparing, the US scores relatively low compared to most other developed countries. They score lower in actual achievement, but higher in how satisfied they feel with their accomplishment, which to many observers seems like a bit of a problem.
So if you agree that these scores have significance and that consequently Asian classrooms are doing better than American ones in preparing students for whatever high math and other scores are meant to demonstrate that they are prepared for, then you can easily read the rest of the book as "how American schools should be different so they can be more like Chinese and Japanese ones." You might notice my vague skepticism in my phrasing. I have a theory that America's fixation upon quantifiable measurements of outcome is part of their problem and that these international comparisons only make us see things through this peculiarly Cartesian filter.
But if you are just reading for the compare and contrast, then the book is good reading because the tone of the book is very calm and research-oriented. Its format is simple -- in one area after another, the authors describe what American schools do, then what Japanese and Chinese schools tend to do in the same area. The authors mentioned that it is difficult to pinpoint distinctive characteristics of American schools without going outside the schools. Homeschooling, of course, offers a comparison with typical classrooms within national boundaries, but many educational researchers don't know how to treat homeschooling because it is individual and organic and resists normal classroom observation. So researching other cultures can shed light upon our own.
To take a couple of examples, math teachers in Beijing and especially in Sendai are far more likely than those in Cleveland to use manipulatives in a math lesson, even in fifth grade. They are also far more likely to start the class with a difficult problem, get the students' input on how it could be solved, and work through carefully and inductively. American teachers are much more likely to start a lesson by defining terms and giving a paradigm on how to solve a type of problem, then keep the second part of the lesson for independent seatwork based on the same concept.
Asian teachers are far more likely to stay with one topic during the whole lesson, whereas American teachers are more likely to skip through several topics within a lesson. They both acknowledge the need for variety to keep the student engaged, but Asians will focus on a variety of ways to approach the single topic. The pace is slower in an Asian classroom, but it is also more organized with a clearcut beginning, middle and end, where an American lesson is something like a smorgasboard.
There are some things you would expect --- Asians respect academics and achievement far more than the average American. And some things are surprising -- though Asian children have a longer school day and a longer school year (240 days instead of 180). they have far more frequent recesses, so the amount of hours in a class is more comparable than you might have thought.
If you are reading the book from the perspective of a homeschooler, it is interesting, because you can pick and choose how you want to teach. So you can reflect on some of your own educational experiences and realize that the conventional American mode isn't the only one possible.
The authors have done a good job not leaping to quick conclusions about what the studies show about the differences. Rather, they lay it out and admit there is probably more to be learned. For example, the preschool years are examined briefly but not in depth. So you get some clues about how Asian parents raise their children, but probably not in enough depth to gain a complete understanding. Asian parents think of early childhood as an Age of Innocence, according to the book, and do little academic preparation in the home, unlike American parents who buy educational games and manipulatives for their small children. But once school starts, Asian parents become very involved in academics and in supporting the school discipline, whereas Americans tend to back off at this point and leave a lot of the academic content and discipline to the schools.
This book isn't exactly one of the page-turning non-fiction ones full of real-life anecdotes with names changed to protect privacy, or interesting personal narratives that keep you reading. It is about statistics and averages. But because it divides up and compares so many different elements of elementary education in such a simple, clear format, it's easy to understand and readable, and also easy to look back through.
Friday, May 20, 2011
Forever Young? Maybe not, but a good book on nutrition and wellness
If you have a Kindle, this book The Forever Young Diet and Lifestyle is presently free, and it's really good especially for the price and in spite of the title. It has a bit of everything. It is written by a husband and wife couple. A large part of it is how to proactively be healthy and fit (the "lifestyle" part). Another part is about how to sensibly reduce your weight and improve your habits, if you are overweight. There is also a section on family fitness, talking about how to give your kids a healthy life with good food and an emphasis on activity and exercise.
Clearly, the authors have done a lot of research. They also have a positive, friendly style -- it isn't one of those books that make you feel guilty or overwhelmed. It is easy to pick up and start with where you are. Another thing I like about the book is that it integrates the research on anti-oxidants like coffee, chocolate, wine and tea. For example, the book recommends having a daily drink (especially wine, especially dry red) and an ounce or so of dark chocolate daily, along with some coffee or (green) tea in the morning. At the same time, they mention that some people can't "do" alcohol or chocolate in moderation, so they recommend avoiding these things if you are one of those people.
The main message is to live an active life, restrict or avoid processed foods which generally are filled with chemicals, white carbohydrates, sugar, salt and bad fats along with chemicals. And eat a "hunter/gatherer" or Mediterranean diet. So nothing radically new for those who have read several diet books, but plenty of sensible advice and an emphasis on the whole lifestyle (including family life) which I find very pleasant and positive. It does not go deeply into any one subject, and barely touches on the emotional reasons for overeating, but what it does do -- present a broad range of solid information on wellness -- it does well.
When I saw the title I was afraid it was another one of those gimmicky, unrealistic books that seem obsessed with avoiding mortality, but it is not like that at all. Rather, the emphasis is on maximizing quality of life and taking good care of what you have.
Clearly, the authors have done a lot of research. They also have a positive, friendly style -- it isn't one of those books that make you feel guilty or overwhelmed. It is easy to pick up and start with where you are. Another thing I like about the book is that it integrates the research on anti-oxidants like coffee, chocolate, wine and tea. For example, the book recommends having a daily drink (especially wine, especially dry red) and an ounce or so of dark chocolate daily, along with some coffee or (green) tea in the morning. At the same time, they mention that some people can't "do" alcohol or chocolate in moderation, so they recommend avoiding these things if you are one of those people.
The main message is to live an active life, restrict or avoid processed foods which generally are filled with chemicals, white carbohydrates, sugar, salt and bad fats along with chemicals. And eat a "hunter/gatherer" or Mediterranean diet. So nothing radically new for those who have read several diet books, but plenty of sensible advice and an emphasis on the whole lifestyle (including family life) which I find very pleasant and positive. It does not go deeply into any one subject, and barely touches on the emotional reasons for overeating, but what it does do -- present a broad range of solid information on wellness -- it does well.
When I saw the title I was afraid it was another one of those gimmicky, unrealistic books that seem obsessed with avoiding mortality, but it is not like that at all. Rather, the emphasis is on maximizing quality of life and taking good care of what you have.
Thursday, April 7, 2011
Met the Goal!
#51
Driven to Distraction
I was browsing in a thrift store and found this nice hardcover version of Ed Hallowell's book about childhood and adult ADD. For only a quarter! I had to be in town almost all day because two of my kids had things going on there so I read it in the car. Helpful and encouraging. It had a lot of stories about different people with different forms of ADD. When the book was written, little was known about adult ADD -- so this book was rather unusual in its case studies of adults who the author diagnosed as having the problem. Diagnosis can be somewhat complex with adults because secondary issues can develop due to misunderstanding of the original condition.
Another thing the book points out is that ADD isn't always hyperactivity. There's a significant number of people. particularly females, who space out in classrooms, have trouble processing information, miss deadlines, drift, and have disorganized closets and drawers. And you can alternate abstraction with hyperfocus. Those things all describe me. Cycles are also a symptom -- firing on all cylinders at one time and then regressing for no reason at another. That is also me. I'm not inclined to seek out a diagnosis but I like reading this kind of book because the strategies suggested are helpful to me and it also makes me feel a little better about my own challenges with attention.
#52
10-10-10 -- 10 Minutes, 10 Months, 10 Years -- A Life Transforming Idea
I picked this book up at the library. Here's an article that explains how it can help with ADD. It's a simple but apparently valuable decision-making strategy that allows you to make choices that fit your values. The book was mostly stories about the author or other people who had used the idea to make decisions in different areas of life -- work, education, family, relationship, friends, etc. The principle itself is so simple that it didn't really need much explanation. You just reflect, for the available alternatives:
I think that the idea is that when you work through it this way you get some distance from the emotions of the immediate moment and figure out the alternative that is most in line with your long-term goals and visions.
Here's the author's website. She says she is a Christian and there is a chapter in the book about how the 10 10 10 strategy is in line with Christian thinking. Catholics refer to proximate, mediate and remote consequences and this is basically the same thing. She quotes St Ignatius who recommends making decisions in light of eternity.
My problem with decision-making strategies is that they usually don't help. I don't figure out that I need to make a decision until the time is past, or I forget to use the strategy and go into default. This one is so simple to remember, though, that I may actually try to use it next time I'm confronted with a fork in the road.
The basic point is that there is not necessarily a "right way" to decide these things. Rather, the process is to clarify and prioritize. One couple in the book decided they needed to exclude their troubled, drug-addicted adult son from their home for the sake of the younger children, until he cleaned up his life. Other moms used the process to decide whether to stay late on the job or be there for a child's activity, or how to balance caring for an aging parent with caring for one's marriage or family. Some people use the process with their kids to help them make life decisions.
---------------
And that's 52 books for 2011! Now I can relax. Another ADD trait is being extremely project oriented. I am glad that being a mom gives me the opportunity to develop skills and discipline in doing the daily, little, non-project type things that need doing.
Driven to Distraction
I was browsing in a thrift store and found this nice hardcover version of Ed Hallowell's book about childhood and adult ADD. For only a quarter! I had to be in town almost all day because two of my kids had things going on there so I read it in the car. Helpful and encouraging. It had a lot of stories about different people with different forms of ADD. When the book was written, little was known about adult ADD -- so this book was rather unusual in its case studies of adults who the author diagnosed as having the problem. Diagnosis can be somewhat complex with adults because secondary issues can develop due to misunderstanding of the original condition.
Another thing the book points out is that ADD isn't always hyperactivity. There's a significant number of people. particularly females, who space out in classrooms, have trouble processing information, miss deadlines, drift, and have disorganized closets and drawers. And you can alternate abstraction with hyperfocus. Those things all describe me. Cycles are also a symptom -- firing on all cylinders at one time and then regressing for no reason at another. That is also me. I'm not inclined to seek out a diagnosis but I like reading this kind of book because the strategies suggested are helpful to me and it also makes me feel a little better about my own challenges with attention.
#52
10-10-10 -- 10 Minutes, 10 Months, 10 Years -- A Life Transforming Idea
I picked this book up at the library. Here's an article that explains how it can help with ADD. It's a simple but apparently valuable decision-making strategy that allows you to make choices that fit your values. The book was mostly stories about the author or other people who had used the idea to make decisions in different areas of life -- work, education, family, relationship, friends, etc. The principle itself is so simple that it didn't really need much explanation. You just reflect, for the available alternatives:
- What will happen in ten minutes?
- What will happen in ten months?
- What will happen in ten years?
I think that the idea is that when you work through it this way you get some distance from the emotions of the immediate moment and figure out the alternative that is most in line with your long-term goals and visions.
Here's the author's website. She says she is a Christian and there is a chapter in the book about how the 10 10 10 strategy is in line with Christian thinking. Catholics refer to proximate, mediate and remote consequences and this is basically the same thing. She quotes St Ignatius who recommends making decisions in light of eternity.
My problem with decision-making strategies is that they usually don't help. I don't figure out that I need to make a decision until the time is past, or I forget to use the strategy and go into default. This one is so simple to remember, though, that I may actually try to use it next time I'm confronted with a fork in the road.
The basic point is that there is not necessarily a "right way" to decide these things. Rather, the process is to clarify and prioritize. One couple in the book decided they needed to exclude their troubled, drug-addicted adult son from their home for the sake of the younger children, until he cleaned up his life. Other moms used the process to decide whether to stay late on the job or be there for a child's activity, or how to balance caring for an aging parent with caring for one's marriage or family. Some people use the process with their kids to help them make life decisions.
---------------
And that's 52 books for 2011! Now I can relax. Another ADD trait is being extremely project oriented. I am glad that being a mom gives me the opportunity to develop skills and discipline in doing the daily, little, non-project type things that need doing.
Wednesday, April 6, 2011
Life Skills for Kids
Book #50
I just finished reading the book Life Skills for Kids. I bought it several years ago but honestly never read it. For Lent, however, I thought I would go through it and refresh my skills in teaching/ instructing my kids.
The book is centered around 14 "Maxims of Maturity" which are:
I think I'll also use it as a way to brush up MY life skills. It's hard to teach what you don't really know. So as I go through this book I'll ask myself:
By the way, here is a PDF called Ready, Set, Fly which I've found useful as sort of a checklist. ..from the Casey Life Skills website, which looks like it is geared towards foster homes.
I just finished reading the book Life Skills for Kids. I bought it several years ago but honestly never read it. For Lent, however, I thought I would go through it and refresh my skills in teaching/ instructing my kids.
The book is centered around 14 "Maxims of Maturity" which are:
1. Responsibility begins in small things, and it should be timed well.The author takes each of these as a category to discuss various things of importance for children to learn. There are lots of tips, quotes from other books, and activity ideas for each topic. Some of the tips are too complex for me -- for example, bean-counting systems usually flop in our house because I forget to tally up the beans or whatever -- but others are quite helpful. So I'm going to move through the book and pick out some of the most useful parts for me.
2. Children must learn to get along with others and to resolve and manage conflict on their own.
3. Everyone lives somewhere. We need to take care of that place.
4. It's a big and sometimes uncertain world, and our children need to know how to navigate it safely.
5. We must use our time wisely.
6. We need to manage our work and living space wisely.
7. Things break and need maintenance. The more we can learn to do on our own, the more self-reliant we will be.
8. Money: either we learn to handle it or it will handle us.
9. Each of us has only one body, we need to learn to take care of it.
10. A brain is a valuable thing. We should aim to make it work at peak performance.
11. If God is not the center of our life, it will ultimately be unsatisfying.
12. The more decisions we make, the better decision makers we become.
13. We can all develop and nourish creativity.
14. Celebrate, rejoice and be glad! This day is all we have.
I think I'll also use it as a way to brush up MY life skills. It's hard to teach what you don't really know. So as I go through this book I'll ask myself:
- How do I do this myself (if I do)?
- If I am not doing it, is it still worthwhile to learn and teach?
- What are the obstacles that prevent me from doing this and/or teaching my kids?
- What, if anything, should I change as a result?
- (If I've made any changes) -- what is still working, what needs to be tweaked or rethought?
By the way, here is a PDF called Ready, Set, Fly which I've found useful as sort of a checklist. ..from the Casey Life Skills website, which looks like it is geared towards foster homes.
Two More Books for 52 in 52
52 Books in 52 Weeks
#48
Unschooling Rules: 55 Ways to Unlearn What We Know About Schools and Rediscover Education
This is quite inexpensive in Kindle format, probably because it's a fairly quick read -- I don't know how it weighs in paper form, but I would guess it's light. I liked it. The author's blog is here. He says that the title "Unschooling Rules" is supposed to be both an oxymoron (since unschooling has no Rules, of course) and a double entendre -- you know, like you might say "Oregon Ducks Rule!" The book makes the point that schools as they exist today are anachronistic and ineffective, and that education should better reflect how we do things and how we live in the real world. There is a pragmatic slant to it but you could take a lot of the general principles and apply them to situations beyond unschooling. I probably will blog more about this book in future because I found it relatively easy to absorb and retain the ideas. I think that is because of the "55 Ways" format.
#49
Raising Charitable Children.
Another quick read. It was positive, practical and nicely presented. Every chapter started with a story -- either from the authors own life, or from someone else's life -- and then had a "how to" section which gave various ideas on how to bring the chapter's concept into being in your own life. It is one of those "pot-pourri" type books where there is not a whole system to learn or a lot of information to absorb, just ideas and encouragement that you can take no matter what your situation. It seemed like the author tried to present several lower-income families practicing charity in simple ways so charitable effort wasn't just something for the well-to-do. I got it at Paperback Swap because I was thinking we don't do as much as we should in the area of helping those in need and so this book fits the bill well. It makes the point that many children aren't really aware of neediness around them and that charitable giving is a good antidote for the "gimme" syndrome.
#48
Unschooling Rules: 55 Ways to Unlearn What We Know About Schools and Rediscover Education
This is quite inexpensive in Kindle format, probably because it's a fairly quick read -- I don't know how it weighs in paper form, but I would guess it's light. I liked it. The author's blog is here. He says that the title "Unschooling Rules" is supposed to be both an oxymoron (since unschooling has no Rules, of course) and a double entendre -- you know, like you might say "Oregon Ducks Rule!" The book makes the point that schools as they exist today are anachronistic and ineffective, and that education should better reflect how we do things and how we live in the real world. There is a pragmatic slant to it but you could take a lot of the general principles and apply them to situations beyond unschooling. I probably will blog more about this book in future because I found it relatively easy to absorb and retain the ideas. I think that is because of the "55 Ways" format.
#49
Raising Charitable Children.
Another quick read. It was positive, practical and nicely presented. Every chapter started with a story -- either from the authors own life, or from someone else's life -- and then had a "how to" section which gave various ideas on how to bring the chapter's concept into being in your own life. It is one of those "pot-pourri" type books where there is not a whole system to learn or a lot of information to absorb, just ideas and encouragement that you can take no matter what your situation. It seemed like the author tried to present several lower-income families practicing charity in simple ways so charitable effort wasn't just something for the well-to-do. I got it at Paperback Swap because I was thinking we don't do as much as we should in the area of helping those in need and so this book fits the bill well. It makes the point that many children aren't really aware of neediness around them and that charitable giving is a good antidote for the "gimme" syndrome.
Sunday, April 3, 2011
Books #43 to #47
My mom was visiting us from Alaska, and so last weekend I read the books she brought with her for travel reading.
#43
The Good Husband of Zebra Drive (No 1 Ladies Detective Agency)
Amazon has a bunch of reviews of this book, so I won't reinvent the wheel. The book has a particular rhythm to it. If you don't get in sync with the abbreviated sentences and interior views of the characters' thoughts between their words and actions, the book reads sort of bumpily, or so I thought. Plus, the characters aren't really introduced, so it took a while for me to get straight who was who. But by about the third chapter I was really enjoying the minor conflicts, the reflective pauses, and the wisdom and simplicity of the characters.
#44
Heaven is for Real: A Little Boy's Astounding Story of His Trip to Heaven and Back
My mom read this because some one recommended it to her. We both thought it an interesting read. A 4 year old boy almost died during surgery from a ruptured appendix and later reported spontaneously that he had seen Jesus and been to heaven. The book, written by his pastor father, is about the details of what he saw according to what he said.
One notable part of the book was the mention of Akiane Kramarik, a child prodigy who reportedly started seeing visions of heaven when she was about 3 or 4. She had been raised by atheist parents who homeschooled their children and had no TV, so the parents had no explanation for her reports.
In a nutshell, I would say that I don't base my faith upon what one might call private revelation. Neither would I say that such things can't happen. God works in mysterious ways.
#45
First Family by David Baldacci. This was a fast read..... a thriller, with a PI man and woman who used to be in the Secret Service and went independent. The woman is tough and sarcastic and comes from a family of cops, the man is more easy-going. One notable feature -- one of the main characters, the kidnapped 12 year old girl, was called Willa! I hardly ever hear about anyone with my name. This girl was smart and resourceful and loved Jane Austen books. In fact, this was one of those books where most of the adults are seriously messed up people and only the children are normal and clued-in to reality. It made me wonder at what point (in thriller-world) kids drop off the cliff and get to become the troubled and self-centered grown-ups. But anyway, I definitely rooted for my namesake throughout this.
-----------------------------
Also a couple of Kindle reads (temporarily free from Amazon)
#46
Getting Away is Deadly. An army wife on a working vacation in Washington DC with her husband and some of her army-wife friends. She finds herself involved in a mystery involving blackmail, repercussions from the Korean War, an illegal immigrant "wedding" scam, and even in helping organize the bedroom of the neglected little daughter of a Washington rising star. Since the army wife has a business as a professional organizer, the chapters are interspersed with tips about how to organize for your vacation. Fun to read, light, temporarily free at Amazon.
#47
When You Went Away -- a love story written from the point of a man. Author: Michael Baron. As the story starts, Gerry is raising his 4 month old son. As it progresses, it turns out he lost his wife of 20 years only a couple of months back, when Reese, the baby, was a newborn. He has also lost his 17 year old daughter, who ran away several months before with a dark "philosophy student" of twenty, and is now following a Grateful Dead type band. The book is about Gerry trying to pull his life back together, find his daughter and restore his troubled relationship with him, and be a good father to his infant son.
The scenes with the baby were both meticulous and luminously written. The author seems to be writing both what he knew and liked. (see this post; HT Jessica at Homemaking through the Church Year). The loving details about an infant's progress through his first year were from a masculine perspective and also very true to life. It was also interesting to me to read about the protaganist's interest in music, baseball and good cooking.
Less true to life, to me, were the bits about Gerry' trying to bring his daughter back home. The breakdown in their relationship which led to her leaving with her boyfriend Mick seemed implausible to me. The idea was that the daughter's relationship with her mother was so close that she felt like her dad was a rival. I think it would be more likely to be the other way around.
#43
The Good Husband of Zebra Drive (No 1 Ladies Detective Agency)
Amazon has a bunch of reviews of this book, so I won't reinvent the wheel. The book has a particular rhythm to it. If you don't get in sync with the abbreviated sentences and interior views of the characters' thoughts between their words and actions, the book reads sort of bumpily, or so I thought. Plus, the characters aren't really introduced, so it took a while for me to get straight who was who. But by about the third chapter I was really enjoying the minor conflicts, the reflective pauses, and the wisdom and simplicity of the characters.
#44
Heaven is for Real: A Little Boy's Astounding Story of His Trip to Heaven and Back
My mom read this because some one recommended it to her. We both thought it an interesting read. A 4 year old boy almost died during surgery from a ruptured appendix and later reported spontaneously that he had seen Jesus and been to heaven. The book, written by his pastor father, is about the details of what he saw according to what he said.
One notable part of the book was the mention of Akiane Kramarik, a child prodigy who reportedly started seeing visions of heaven when she was about 3 or 4. She had been raised by atheist parents who homeschooled their children and had no TV, so the parents had no explanation for her reports.
In a nutshell, I would say that I don't base my faith upon what one might call private revelation. Neither would I say that such things can't happen. God works in mysterious ways.
#45
First Family by David Baldacci. This was a fast read..... a thriller, with a PI man and woman who used to be in the Secret Service and went independent. The woman is tough and sarcastic and comes from a family of cops, the man is more easy-going. One notable feature -- one of the main characters, the kidnapped 12 year old girl, was called Willa! I hardly ever hear about anyone with my name. This girl was smart and resourceful and loved Jane Austen books. In fact, this was one of those books where most of the adults are seriously messed up people and only the children are normal and clued-in to reality. It made me wonder at what point (in thriller-world) kids drop off the cliff and get to become the troubled and self-centered grown-ups. But anyway, I definitely rooted for my namesake throughout this.
-----------------------------
Also a couple of Kindle reads (temporarily free from Amazon)
#46
Getting Away is Deadly. An army wife on a working vacation in Washington DC with her husband and some of her army-wife friends. She finds herself involved in a mystery involving blackmail, repercussions from the Korean War, an illegal immigrant "wedding" scam, and even in helping organize the bedroom of the neglected little daughter of a Washington rising star. Since the army wife has a business as a professional organizer, the chapters are interspersed with tips about how to organize for your vacation. Fun to read, light, temporarily free at Amazon.
#47
When You Went Away -- a love story written from the point of a man. Author: Michael Baron. As the story starts, Gerry is raising his 4 month old son. As it progresses, it turns out he lost his wife of 20 years only a couple of months back, when Reese, the baby, was a newborn. He has also lost his 17 year old daughter, who ran away several months before with a dark "philosophy student" of twenty, and is now following a Grateful Dead type band. The book is about Gerry trying to pull his life back together, find his daughter and restore his troubled relationship with him, and be a good father to his infant son.
The scenes with the baby were both meticulous and luminously written. The author seems to be writing both what he knew and liked. (see this post; HT Jessica at Homemaking through the Church Year). The loving details about an infant's progress through his first year were from a masculine perspective and also very true to life. It was also interesting to me to read about the protaganist's interest in music, baseball and good cooking.
Less true to life, to me, were the bits about Gerry' trying to bring his daughter back home. The breakdown in their relationship which led to her leaving with her boyfriend Mick seemed implausible to me. The idea was that the daughter's relationship with her mother was so close that she felt like her dad was a rival. I think it would be more likely to be the other way around.
Tuesday, March 15, 2011
Book Update
This is the last few books I read before Lent. For Lent I am trying to stick to spiritual reading, which takes way longer than novels.
#39
Riven
Apparently this author wrote the Left Behind books, which I never read. Figures, in a way. This novel treats in parallel form of two people. One is a middle-aged pastor who is faithful but unsuccessful in his ministry, with a fallen-away adult daughter and a wife who is falling sick with cancer. The other is a boy from the wrong side of the tracks with no dad, an alcoholic mother, and a trailer home. Brady, the boy, shows talent in acting (playing the lead in Bye Bye Birdie in his school play) but flunks his classes and then goes downhill from there, into a life of increasing squalor and crime. The pastor maintains his faith in the face of everything going wrong in his life but with increasing difficulty. He eventually gets a job in a lock-down prison for the most irredeemable criminals. Three-quarters of the book switches from one life to the other; in the last quarter, the plot takes a truly strange turn (for which the Amazon reviews did not prepare me). It was like stepping into a different book. I basically liked the whole first part, especially the life of the unsuccessful, mediocre, valiant pastor, but the last part just rang my implausibility and inappropriate meter so loudly that I couldn't buy in.
#40
Grey Matter. A California neurosurgeon recounts his experiences of praying with his patients. Dr Levy grew up in a Jewish Christian home and returned to his Christian faith after some time as a practicing Jew. In this book he tells stories of his different cases and his mission of bringing prayer to his medical work. Very interesting.
#41
Dynevor Terrace, or the Clue of Life, volume 1.
Another Charlotte Yonge novel. Details of the book here. Since I'm running out of computer time I'll just quote:
#42
Dynevor Terrace Volume 2.
I really love Charlotte Yonge. When Lent is over I am going to read another book of hers. Why did I not know about her books until just recently?
#39
Riven
Apparently this author wrote the Left Behind books, which I never read. Figures, in a way. This novel treats in parallel form of two people. One is a middle-aged pastor who is faithful but unsuccessful in his ministry, with a fallen-away adult daughter and a wife who is falling sick with cancer. The other is a boy from the wrong side of the tracks with no dad, an alcoholic mother, and a trailer home. Brady, the boy, shows talent in acting (playing the lead in Bye Bye Birdie in his school play) but flunks his classes and then goes downhill from there, into a life of increasing squalor and crime. The pastor maintains his faith in the face of everything going wrong in his life but with increasing difficulty. He eventually gets a job in a lock-down prison for the most irredeemable criminals. Three-quarters of the book switches from one life to the other; in the last quarter, the plot takes a truly strange turn (for which the Amazon reviews did not prepare me). It was like stepping into a different book. I basically liked the whole first part, especially the life of the unsuccessful, mediocre, valiant pastor, but the last part just rang my implausibility and inappropriate meter so loudly that I couldn't buy in.
#40
Grey Matter. A California neurosurgeon recounts his experiences of praying with his patients. Dr Levy grew up in a Jewish Christian home and returned to his Christian faith after some time as a practicing Jew. In this book he tells stories of his different cases and his mission of bringing prayer to his medical work. Very interesting.
#41
Dynevor Terrace, or the Clue of Life, volume 1.
Another Charlotte Yonge novel. Details of the book here. Since I'm running out of computer time I'll just quote:
The theme of the novel is summed up in the sub-title, "The Clue of Life". The clue is to see the present life as a preparation for Heaven, which in practice means improving one's character and doing good to others. Louis has to overcome his volatility and desultoriness, James his pride, Isobel her tendency to live in a dream world, and to neglect her duties to her husband and children
#42
Dynevor Terrace Volume 2.
I really love Charlotte Yonge. When Lent is over I am going to read another book of hers. Why did I not know about her books until just recently?
Friday, March 4, 2011
Eight Book Takes
Some more books read in the last couple of weeks, for my 52 in 52 Challenge
There are 8, so I can't count it as Seven Quick Takes, but Eight Quick Takes has a kind of assonance that almost makes up for it.
#31
Loss and Gain the Story of a Convert by JH Newman. I didn't realize until I started it that this was a sort of novel. Furthermore, it's an odd kind of novel -- the life events of the main character take a back seat to his discussions with schoolfriends and teachers and other people he meets as a student at Oxford. I learned quite a lot about Oxford life and finding encouragement that I'm not the only one to whom ideas play a bigger part in my inner life than actual daily experiences.
And what do you know, this book mentions The Betrothed too! Apparently it was very influential on British Anglicans of the time!
#32
A Spiritual Aeneid by Ronald Knox. Another conversion story from Anglicanism to Roman Catholicism, this one autobiographical. I found it at Google Ebooks and converted it from E-pub to Mobi format. Father Knox has a lively sense of humor and a scholarly but accessible way of writing. I can't think of many other books that start a sentence something like "I don't know if anyone's reading the Latin tags that head the chapters....." I could totally picture Ronald Knox as a tutor at Thomas Aquinas College. This couplet from Absolute and Abitofhell (a Dryden-esque pastiche satirizing Anglican relativism) keeps running through my mind:
#33
Protector
This one is free right now on Amazon's Limited Time Promotional. ... a first novel apparently, with some uneven patches. It is the first in a series about a an alcoholic, gifted, tough cop,-- the twist is that the cop is a woman in her mid-30's. She is the daughter of a mean, abusive retired cop that as the story begins has just had a heart attack and is in a nursing home. There is a lot of language in the book and some graphic descriptions of violence. At best the book is intense, gripping, vivid -- the plot crafted out well with twists and turns, though I guessed the ending way ahead of time. At worst there is some frankly unrealistic plot turns (who would send a 9 year old orphan off in a witness protection program with only an alcoholic and out of control female cop as guardian?) and some rather poor patches of writing -- since at best the writing was taut and crafted in a modern way, I think the effort needed more editing than it got. It's not the kind of book I usually read -- I think it's been years since I've even read a book with swear words in it. But it certainly was a page turner. By the way, almost every character was either an alcoholic, a former alcoholic, or a meth addict.
#34
Vanished.
THis one was free at the time I downloaded it and is a Boarding School Mystery from this Zondervan Faithgirlz line A girl called Jeri is a 6th grader on a scholarship at a girl's boarding school off in the mountains. It is mid-winter when a bus carrying her roommate and several other girls simply vanishes in mid-road. The rest of the novel describes Jeri's attempts to play amateur detective in her efforts to find her dear roomnmate and the other girls in the wintery setting. The story has an explicitly Christian perspective. It was quite a short novel, I suppose because it's meant for the 9 to 12 age group.
#35
The Education of Catholic Girls. This is of interest even if you are educating boys and not Catholic. It is a worthy supplement to Charlotte Mason's books and discusses many of the same subjects and ideas that CM does. It is very sensible -- the tone reminds me of Laura Berquist, practical and thoughtful at the same time. You can find it in html at Gutenberg if you want to glance at it.
#36
Waverley -- this is fiction of course, a novel by Sir Walter Scott. I started it back near the beginning of February but got bogged down in a couple of places and read other books instead. I finally finished it. It's an interesting book because it seems to start off as a character tale, in that Waverley's education and temperament are laid out very carefully, but then it develops into a Scottish adventure tale with background sketches of history and cultural life. At the beginning it seems that Waverley's flaws are going to be shown up in the book, but though he does mature over the course of his various mishaps, he comes off well in contrast to the other main characters in the book. Through his generous nature he wins friends and support from all sectors of society and though described as "wavering" and overly impulsive he tends to hold on to his friends by putting their plights and wellbeing before his own convenience. It is a good book, well worth reading. ... nothing unsuitable for a middle schooler or high schooler who is capable of reading, say, Dickens or Victor Hugo.
#37
A Voyage to Arcturus
I read this because my oldest son was reading it and it is free on Kindle! My oldest read it because CS Lewis discussed it in one of his essays on science fiction. Here's Wikipedia's summary; here's a thoughtful review that includes the CS Lewis quote I remember:
Voyage to Arcturus was an uncomfortable read -- my take on it is similar to Lewis's -- I felt like it was written with probably intentional primitivism and that the underlying message was one of hatred for love, life and delight. Other than that, it's a fine book, LOL.
#38
Callista: A Tale of the Third Century
So to get away from the unholy trinity of Maskull, Nightspore and Krag (what names!) in the voyage of Acturus, I thought it was a good time to read another novel by Cardinal Newman. Callista is the story of an African town in the early days of the Church. Callista is the pivotal character rather than the protaganist of the novel. She is an accomplished, well educated Greek girl who crafts idols for a living along with her brother.
Newman describes the corrupt atmosphere of paganism well, and the response of the early Christian Church. The Bishop Cyprian appears in the novel, and a cloud of locusts make an appearance too. Someday I will quote the passage. The style of Callista is completely different from that of Loss and Gain -- Loss and Gain had a sad twilight feeling, something like an Evelyn Waugh novel without the sharp humor, while Callista was something like Walter Scott informed with Catholic perception and Newman's elegant style and historical scholarship. In spite of the theme of persecution and martyrdom, the "tone" is much happier and more peaceful than that in Loss and Gain, though the conversion process is somewhat similar -- Callista is the flower of what secular civilization has to offer, and finds it is not nearly enough. In that way Callista, though it stands as historical fiction, also seems to evoke the latter days of the British empire.
The description of a demonic possession in the book reminded me sharply of David Lindsay's entire novel.
There are 8, so I can't count it as Seven Quick Takes, but Eight Quick Takes has a kind of assonance that almost makes up for it.
#31
Loss and Gain the Story of a Convert by JH Newman. I didn't realize until I started it that this was a sort of novel. Furthermore, it's an odd kind of novel -- the life events of the main character take a back seat to his discussions with schoolfriends and teachers and other people he meets as a student at Oxford. I learned quite a lot about Oxford life and finding encouragement that I'm not the only one to whom ideas play a bigger part in my inner life than actual daily experiences.
And what do you know, this book mentions The Betrothed too! Apparently it was very influential on British Anglicans of the time!
#32
A Spiritual Aeneid by Ronald Knox. Another conversion story from Anglicanism to Roman Catholicism, this one autobiographical. I found it at Google Ebooks and converted it from E-pub to Mobi format. Father Knox has a lively sense of humor and a scholarly but accessible way of writing. I can't think of many other books that start a sentence something like "I don't know if anyone's reading the Latin tags that head the chapters....." I could totally picture Ronald Knox as a tutor at Thomas Aquinas College. This couplet from Absolute and Abitofhell (a Dryden-esque pastiche satirizing Anglican relativism) keeps running through my mind:
When suave Politeness, temp'ring bigot Zeal, Corrected, " I believe," to " One does feel."
#33
Protector
This one is free right now on Amazon's Limited Time Promotional. ... a first novel apparently, with some uneven patches. It is the first in a series about a an alcoholic, gifted, tough cop,-- the twist is that the cop is a woman in her mid-30's. She is the daughter of a mean, abusive retired cop that as the story begins has just had a heart attack and is in a nursing home. There is a lot of language in the book and some graphic descriptions of violence. At best the book is intense, gripping, vivid -- the plot crafted out well with twists and turns, though I guessed the ending way ahead of time. At worst there is some frankly unrealistic plot turns (who would send a 9 year old orphan off in a witness protection program with only an alcoholic and out of control female cop as guardian?) and some rather poor patches of writing -- since at best the writing was taut and crafted in a modern way, I think the effort needed more editing than it got. It's not the kind of book I usually read -- I think it's been years since I've even read a book with swear words in it. But it certainly was a page turner. By the way, almost every character was either an alcoholic, a former alcoholic, or a meth addict.
#34
Vanished.
THis one was free at the time I downloaded it and is a Boarding School Mystery from this Zondervan Faithgirlz line A girl called Jeri is a 6th grader on a scholarship at a girl's boarding school off in the mountains. It is mid-winter when a bus carrying her roommate and several other girls simply vanishes in mid-road. The rest of the novel describes Jeri's attempts to play amateur detective in her efforts to find her dear roomnmate and the other girls in the wintery setting. The story has an explicitly Christian perspective. It was quite a short novel, I suppose because it's meant for the 9 to 12 age group.
#35
The Education of Catholic Girls. This is of interest even if you are educating boys and not Catholic. It is a worthy supplement to Charlotte Mason's books and discusses many of the same subjects and ideas that CM does. It is very sensible -- the tone reminds me of Laura Berquist, practical and thoughtful at the same time. You can find it in html at Gutenberg if you want to glance at it.
#36
Waverley -- this is fiction of course, a novel by Sir Walter Scott. I started it back near the beginning of February but got bogged down in a couple of places and read other books instead. I finally finished it. It's an interesting book because it seems to start off as a character tale, in that Waverley's education and temperament are laid out very carefully, but then it develops into a Scottish adventure tale with background sketches of history and cultural life. At the beginning it seems that Waverley's flaws are going to be shown up in the book, but though he does mature over the course of his various mishaps, he comes off well in contrast to the other main characters in the book. Through his generous nature he wins friends and support from all sectors of society and though described as "wavering" and overly impulsive he tends to hold on to his friends by putting their plights and wellbeing before his own convenience. It is a good book, well worth reading. ... nothing unsuitable for a middle schooler or high schooler who is capable of reading, say, Dickens or Victor Hugo.
#37
A Voyage to Arcturus
I read this because my oldest son was reading it and it is free on Kindle! My oldest read it because CS Lewis discussed it in one of his essays on science fiction. Here's Wikipedia's summary; here's a thoughtful review that includes the CS Lewis quote I remember:
I could totally see Lindsay's influence on CS Lewis's Space Trilogy and to some extent on Lewis's imaginative conception of diabolical motives in The Screwtape Letters.
It was Lindsay who first gave me the idea that the "scientifiction" appeal could be combined with the "supernatural" appeal—suggested the "cross" (in biological sense). His own spiritual outlook is detestable, almost diabolist I think, and his style is crude: but he showed me what a bang you cd get from mixing these two elements.
Voyage to Arcturus was an uncomfortable read -- my take on it is similar to Lewis's -- I felt like it was written with probably intentional primitivism and that the underlying message was one of hatred for love, life and delight. Other than that, it's a fine book, LOL.
#38
Callista: A Tale of the Third Century
So to get away from the unholy trinity of Maskull, Nightspore and Krag (what names!) in the voyage of Acturus, I thought it was a good time to read another novel by Cardinal Newman. Callista is the story of an African town in the early days of the Church. Callista is the pivotal character rather than the protaganist of the novel. She is an accomplished, well educated Greek girl who crafts idols for a living along with her brother.
Newman describes the corrupt atmosphere of paganism well, and the response of the early Christian Church. The Bishop Cyprian appears in the novel, and a cloud of locusts make an appearance too. Someday I will quote the passage. The style of Callista is completely different from that of Loss and Gain -- Loss and Gain had a sad twilight feeling, something like an Evelyn Waugh novel without the sharp humor, while Callista was something like Walter Scott informed with Catholic perception and Newman's elegant style and historical scholarship. In spite of the theme of persecution and martyrdom, the "tone" is much happier and more peaceful than that in Loss and Gain, though the conversion process is somewhat similar -- Callista is the flower of what secular civilization has to offer, and finds it is not nearly enough. In that way Callista, though it stands as historical fiction, also seems to evoke the latter days of the British empire.
The description of a demonic possession in the book reminded me sharply of David Lindsay's entire novel.
Saturday, February 19, 2011
Books #29 and #30 (52 Books in 52 Weeks)
I only finished two books last week! I said I was going to Change my Ways and I guess I did, cutting my book completion rate to about a third. However, I don't know where the time went where I WASN'T reading. I think I spent a little more time online but with nothing much to show for it. This was a busy, out of the home week, though, so maybe that was part of it.
So here are the books I did finish.
#29
Familiaris Consortio.
This might not really count as a book though it seemed to be booklength. ... 54 type-script pages, so I'm counting it as a book. I found a PDF version of the encyclical online and converted it to Mobi (Kindle) format using Calibre. I started reading it in January but just finished it, since I had to think a lot when I was reading it. Very encouraging. Pope John Paul II was very perceptive about the issues facing families and also the particular strengths and graces bestowed upon them by Our Lord. His sympathetic attunement to family issues is remarkable.
#30
The Heir of Redclyffe by Charlotte Yonge. I think Charlotte Yonge will have to be my author of this year. For some reason I'd never really read any of her books before -- I was really missing out. With her attention to character and moral choices and her strongly religious outlook (I believe she must be a High Anglican), she is like a Christian George Eliot or Louisa May Alcott. Which sounds odd now that I've written it out, but if you have read this book perhaps you won't think it sounds so silly.
It's a romance in a sense, but it's really more focused on family life and relationships and spiritual growth. From the title, I had thought it was a Gothic romance, but though there is a family feud and a baronet's inheritance and all that, it isn't really Gothic at all.
A bonus -- there is quite a long section in the book where the main characters discuss The Betrothed which I blogged about a week or so ago. Isn't it funny how something like a book or name or idea comes to your attention and then you keep running across it everywhere!
It sort of brings Charlotte Mason type education to life, since the young adults read aloud to each other and sing/play music in the evenings or play word games for fun, and go for long walks, and sketch landscapes and portraits, or graft roses, and translate Latin or Italian together, or take up Euclid to occupy and discipline their minds. And the mother concerns herself with their character formation and spiritual growth. You don't really see that kind of thing much nowadays. The mother even teaches the youngest girl herself -- dictation lessons, etc, just like CM.
I know I never really review these books I am reading. I just talk about my reaction to them, which seems so self-referential. But I am always nervous about revealing "spoilers". If you want more details go to the Wikipedia entry on The Heir of Redclyffe. Apparently Charlotte Yonge donated the proceeds from her books to missionaries. I am so happy to have found a new author friend.
Oscar Wilde wrote (as you might well expect) of a condemned criminal he met in America:
So here are the books I did finish.
#29
Familiaris Consortio.
This might not really count as a book though it seemed to be booklength. ... 54 type-script pages, so I'm counting it as a book. I found a PDF version of the encyclical online and converted it to Mobi (Kindle) format using Calibre. I started reading it in January but just finished it, since I had to think a lot when I was reading it. Very encouraging. Pope John Paul II was very perceptive about the issues facing families and also the particular strengths and graces bestowed upon them by Our Lord. His sympathetic attunement to family issues is remarkable.
#30
The Heir of Redclyffe by Charlotte Yonge. I think Charlotte Yonge will have to be my author of this year. For some reason I'd never really read any of her books before -- I was really missing out. With her attention to character and moral choices and her strongly religious outlook (I believe she must be a High Anglican), she is like a Christian George Eliot or Louisa May Alcott. Which sounds odd now that I've written it out, but if you have read this book perhaps you won't think it sounds so silly.
It's a romance in a sense, but it's really more focused on family life and relationships and spiritual growth. From the title, I had thought it was a Gothic romance, but though there is a family feud and a baronet's inheritance and all that, it isn't really Gothic at all.
A bonus -- there is quite a long section in the book where the main characters discuss The Betrothed which I blogged about a week or so ago. Isn't it funny how something like a book or name or idea comes to your attention and then you keep running across it everywhere!
It sort of brings Charlotte Mason type education to life, since the young adults read aloud to each other and sing/play music in the evenings or play word games for fun, and go for long walks, and sketch landscapes and portraits, or graft roses, and translate Latin or Italian together, or take up Euclid to occupy and discipline their minds. And the mother concerns herself with their character formation and spiritual growth. You don't really see that kind of thing much nowadays. The mother even teaches the youngest girl herself -- dictation lessons, etc, just like CM.
I know I never really review these books I am reading. I just talk about my reaction to them, which seems so self-referential. But I am always nervous about revealing "spoilers". If you want more details go to the Wikipedia entry on The Heir of Redclyffe. Apparently Charlotte Yonge donated the proceeds from her books to missionaries. I am so happy to have found a new author friend.
Oscar Wilde wrote (as you might well expect) of a condemned criminal he met in America:
"My heart was turned by the eyes of the doomed man, but if he reads The Heir of Redclyffe it's perhaps as well to let the law take its course."I will let him have the last word!
Sunday, February 13, 2011
More Kindle and Paper Trails
A quick list of books I finished reading since my last list. Honest, after this I won't have quite so many books to list, because I am going to Change My Ways, but I wanted to write them all down before I forget what I read.
#18
The Teachable Moment: Seizing the Instants When Children Learn
About classroom teachers, but interesting for parents or homeschoolers, too. Basically, a group of stories shared by different teachers, in different classrooms, about "teachable moments". So a lot of the stories are about the teacher/child relationship or about what children taught the teacher. Quite inspiring and an interesting look into the classroom situation.
#19
Listen
This is a novel that is still free for Kindle on Amazon at this writing. It is about the power of words on relationships and on community life. An anonymous website called "listentoyourself.com" is posting transcripts of conversations overheard in a small town. The results affect several lives and bring several forms of ugliness to the surface, including highschool girl-bullying, and some adulterous relationships. The main focal point in the story is a journalist, his wife and 2 teenage children and their relationships. It's not bad for a freebie and a quick read and reflects on how gossip and secrets can affect relationships.
#20
See Me After Class
What you wish you had known in your first year of classroom teaching. The focus is on practical advice and strategies and encouragement, not theories or perfection. Stories are shared by different teachers, encouraging and sometimes very amusing along the lines of "you thought YOUR first day of school was a disaster" and there are bullet-lists of helpful, realistic tips that you can sort through and adopt if they suit you. Geared to the classroom situation of course, so of limited usefulness to a homeschooler, but fun to read and reminds you of your own classroom days and why you are homeschooling ;-) and what the teachers of today have to cope with.
#21
Medicus: A Novel of the Roman Empire
Surprisingly good -- a sort of historical mystery/romance. It was a Kindle freebie when I downloaded it but apparently is back to normal price (sorry). The style reminded me a bit of Martha Grimes.There was a romance between the medicus (doctor in Roman Britannia) and a British slave girl -- clean and understated. The medicus is a sort of reluctant hero, always trying to do the right thing and stay out of trouble, but always getting blamed and getting administrative heat. Very British. The plot involved a sort of pub/brothel and slave-trafficking but the emphasis was not salacious, but rather on the injustice of coerced-prostitution-trafficking, a problem that is still with us today and apparently enabled and pandered to by Planned Parenthood abortion clinics.
#22
Diet and Health with Key to the Calories
Nutrition Diva's 5 Secrets for Aging Well
I'm putting these together because they were both very short and both to do with dieting so maybe they can add up to one total book. The first one is a public domain book apparently written during one of the World Wars (because it talks about rationing and doing one's bit for one's country). It is written in a light, comic tone -- funny because it's the humor of a different decade, so it's like watching one of those less-classic light films of the 40s or 50s. Most of it is a calorie key, so I didn't read all that. Generally the advice is still sound. Apparently we've always known what it takes to be healthy, but we don't do it.
The second book is basically a preview and supplement to a book you can buy called --Nutrition Diva's Secrets for a Healthy Diet . The author makes a case that you should avoid added sugar (or realistically, limit it), exercise, maintain a healthy weight, get enough sleep, eat plenty of fruits and vegetables, etc. Mostly just sensible things you've heard before, but with tips for doing it well in today's world and some conventional research supporting the points. Quick, to the point, sensible refresher course on what we all know but don't always do.
#23
Focus
I actually read this a while ago but forgot to include it in my last list. It is the free version of Leo Babauta's book on getting things done by eliminating distractions -- mental clutter, especially media input. The focus is more on creative output (like writing or other personal productivity) rather than ordinary jobs or housework, clearing the deck for what you REALLY want to do. So some of it doesn't really apply to my life since my problem seems to be hyperfocusing on "my" things rather than taking care of what needs to be done around this house. But there were some good tips and I did like reading the book and found it helpful.
#24
French Women Don't Get Fat
I got this from Paperback Swap. The first "real" (paper) book I've read for some time. Very readable. I plan to blog about it separately so I won't get into detail here.
#25
Decline and Fall
Evelyn Waugh's first published novel (1928). Another "paper" book. Very clever, very funny in a sort of British Cervantes way. Paul Pennyfeather has lived a stable, secure, predictable life as a student and prospective cleric when an unfortunate turn of events plunges him into a downward spiral. Basically, as Waugh points out, Pennyfeather is sort of a blank, a mirror to reflect a bunch of mostly disreputable figures in different levels of British society. Sort of an anti-Quixote. There is no overt Catholicism in this book and in fact, no Catholics appear, though middle-class "career" Anglican clericalism is skewered in several parts.
#26
Unknown to History: A Story of Mary of Scotland
This is by Charlotte Yonge and is free on Kindle. I just finished reading it yesterday. It's about a supposed daughter to Mary Queen of Scots from her dubious marriage to the Earl of Bothwell. In the story, the daughter is found as an infant on a sinking ship by John Talbot, a sailor and small nobleman and relative of the Earl of Shrewsbury who hosted Mary in part of her captivity. The infant is raised by the Talbots, staunch Protestants and good country folk, as one of their own until events cause them to make her secret known to Queen Mary. The story is a romance, and also gives a historical view of the time and a mostly sympathetic portrait of the tragic Scottish queen. I would say that the story is written from a Reformed perspective, and the heroes of the story are the Protestant and very British Talbots, with their sense that their personal honor and truth is far more valuable than gold, as Queen Mary says of them. In the book Catholics often come off as flighty and feckless (like poor Anthony Babington) or morally somewhat shady (like the villainous Cuthbert Langston), and the Spanish are shadowy figures of dread and terror, while the Puritans often come off as sincere but narrow (the pastor Heatherthwayte, who re-baptizes the baby girl because he thinks her Popish baptism was idolatry, and later calls his children Oil of Gladness and Dust-And-Ashes), or rigid and even cruel (Amyas Paullet, the later custodian of Queen Mary, who takes away her royal fittings when she is condemned to death). Queen Mary is presented as someone who is a victim as much as a repentant sinner, human and capable of manipulation, but also with high ideals and a true faith, and very attractive and appealing to all around heer. The love story is a sweet thread running through the historical events, and in general the story could be read by a bookish junior high student, certainly by a highschooler. I highlighted lots of passages about the worthy foster-parents John and Susan Talbot.
#27
A Canticle for Leibowitz
This is a reread, and a paper book.... the first time I read it was in college, before I was a Catholic. It was fun to read again now that I can understand most of the Latin parts and understand monasticism and Catholicism better than I did then. The setting is post-nuclear-war Earth and more proximately, a monastery in Utah of the austere order of Leibowitz, who in the book was a scientist and martyr of the nuclear apocalypse. The monastery is devoted to preserving the remnants of pre-nuclear knowledge much as the monasteries preserved books and learning through the Dark Ages after the fall of Rome. The main theme seems to be the tension around scientific knowledge and the fallen nature of man which turns both knowledge and ignorance into weapons of destruction. The Catholic Church is presented as the protecting though sometimes frail glass around the candle-flame of knowledge and hope. The timeframe encompasses the post-war millenium, from the Dark Ages, through re-civilization and all the way back to a replay of nuclear destruction. There are three parts to the story and the general perspective is that of the long-sighted monk, a spectator and sometimes martyr to human evil and also a preserver of human knowledge and civilization. A recurring figure sort of like the Wandering Jew appears here and there in the storyline and may be associated mysteriously with Saint Leibowitz himself. It would be interesting to read alongside Asimov's Foundation Trilogy which has a similar longterm framework but a very different worldview.
#28
Treasures of the Snow
I started reading this to my kids before Christmas and we just finished! Now have started reading Tom Playfair for our Morning Time. We are also continuing with An Island Story and Island Saints, and are reading some of the stories from Famous Men of the Middle Ages.
------------------
I am halfway up on my 2011 reading goal! So that gives me a reason now to slow down. I think the reason I've been reading so much fiction is that it has been such a long time since I read fiction. Non-fiction takes me longer, unless it's one of those self-help books with lots of stories. I have several non-fiction books in the "Current" category of my Kindle that I am slowly working through.
#18
The Teachable Moment: Seizing the Instants When Children Learn
About classroom teachers, but interesting for parents or homeschoolers, too. Basically, a group of stories shared by different teachers, in different classrooms, about "teachable moments". So a lot of the stories are about the teacher/child relationship or about what children taught the teacher. Quite inspiring and an interesting look into the classroom situation.
#19
Listen
This is a novel that is still free for Kindle on Amazon at this writing. It is about the power of words on relationships and on community life. An anonymous website called "listentoyourself.com" is posting transcripts of conversations overheard in a small town. The results affect several lives and bring several forms of ugliness to the surface, including highschool girl-bullying, and some adulterous relationships. The main focal point in the story is a journalist, his wife and 2 teenage children and their relationships. It's not bad for a freebie and a quick read and reflects on how gossip and secrets can affect relationships.
#20
See Me After Class
What you wish you had known in your first year of classroom teaching. The focus is on practical advice and strategies and encouragement, not theories or perfection. Stories are shared by different teachers, encouraging and sometimes very amusing along the lines of "you thought YOUR first day of school was a disaster" and there are bullet-lists of helpful, realistic tips that you can sort through and adopt if they suit you. Geared to the classroom situation of course, so of limited usefulness to a homeschooler, but fun to read and reminds you of your own classroom days and why you are homeschooling ;-) and what the teachers of today have to cope with.
#21
Medicus: A Novel of the Roman Empire
Surprisingly good -- a sort of historical mystery/romance. It was a Kindle freebie when I downloaded it but apparently is back to normal price (sorry). The style reminded me a bit of Martha Grimes.There was a romance between the medicus (doctor in Roman Britannia) and a British slave girl -- clean and understated. The medicus is a sort of reluctant hero, always trying to do the right thing and stay out of trouble, but always getting blamed and getting administrative heat. Very British. The plot involved a sort of pub/brothel and slave-trafficking but the emphasis was not salacious, but rather on the injustice of coerced-prostitution-trafficking, a problem that is still with us today and apparently enabled and pandered to by Planned Parenthood abortion clinics.
#22
Diet and Health with Key to the Calories
Nutrition Diva's 5 Secrets for Aging Well
I'm putting these together because they were both very short and both to do with dieting so maybe they can add up to one total book. The first one is a public domain book apparently written during one of the World Wars (because it talks about rationing and doing one's bit for one's country). It is written in a light, comic tone -- funny because it's the humor of a different decade, so it's like watching one of those less-classic light films of the 40s or 50s. Most of it is a calorie key, so I didn't read all that. Generally the advice is still sound. Apparently we've always known what it takes to be healthy, but we don't do it.
The second book is basically a preview and supplement to a book you can buy called --Nutrition Diva's Secrets for a Healthy Diet . The author makes a case that you should avoid added sugar (or realistically, limit it), exercise, maintain a healthy weight, get enough sleep, eat plenty of fruits and vegetables, etc. Mostly just sensible things you've heard before, but with tips for doing it well in today's world and some conventional research supporting the points. Quick, to the point, sensible refresher course on what we all know but don't always do.
#23
Focus
I actually read this a while ago but forgot to include it in my last list. It is the free version of Leo Babauta's book on getting things done by eliminating distractions -- mental clutter, especially media input. The focus is more on creative output (like writing or other personal productivity) rather than ordinary jobs or housework, clearing the deck for what you REALLY want to do. So some of it doesn't really apply to my life since my problem seems to be hyperfocusing on "my" things rather than taking care of what needs to be done around this house. But there were some good tips and I did like reading the book and found it helpful.
#24
French Women Don't Get Fat
I got this from Paperback Swap. The first "real" (paper) book I've read for some time. Very readable. I plan to blog about it separately so I won't get into detail here.
#25
Decline and Fall
Evelyn Waugh's first published novel (1928). Another "paper" book. Very clever, very funny in a sort of British Cervantes way. Paul Pennyfeather has lived a stable, secure, predictable life as a student and prospective cleric when an unfortunate turn of events plunges him into a downward spiral. Basically, as Waugh points out, Pennyfeather is sort of a blank, a mirror to reflect a bunch of mostly disreputable figures in different levels of British society. Sort of an anti-Quixote. There is no overt Catholicism in this book and in fact, no Catholics appear, though middle-class "career" Anglican clericalism is skewered in several parts.
#26
Unknown to History: A Story of Mary of Scotland
This is by Charlotte Yonge and is free on Kindle. I just finished reading it yesterday. It's about a supposed daughter to Mary Queen of Scots from her dubious marriage to the Earl of Bothwell. In the story, the daughter is found as an infant on a sinking ship by John Talbot, a sailor and small nobleman and relative of the Earl of Shrewsbury who hosted Mary in part of her captivity. The infant is raised by the Talbots, staunch Protestants and good country folk, as one of their own until events cause them to make her secret known to Queen Mary. The story is a romance, and also gives a historical view of the time and a mostly sympathetic portrait of the tragic Scottish queen. I would say that the story is written from a Reformed perspective, and the heroes of the story are the Protestant and very British Talbots, with their sense that their personal honor and truth is far more valuable than gold, as Queen Mary says of them. In the book Catholics often come off as flighty and feckless (like poor Anthony Babington) or morally somewhat shady (like the villainous Cuthbert Langston), and the Spanish are shadowy figures of dread and terror, while the Puritans often come off as sincere but narrow (the pastor Heatherthwayte, who re-baptizes the baby girl because he thinks her Popish baptism was idolatry, and later calls his children Oil of Gladness and Dust-And-Ashes), or rigid and even cruel (Amyas Paullet, the later custodian of Queen Mary, who takes away her royal fittings when she is condemned to death). Queen Mary is presented as someone who is a victim as much as a repentant sinner, human and capable of manipulation, but also with high ideals and a true faith, and very attractive and appealing to all around heer. The love story is a sweet thread running through the historical events, and in general the story could be read by a bookish junior high student, certainly by a highschooler. I highlighted lots of passages about the worthy foster-parents John and Susan Talbot.
#27
A Canticle for Leibowitz
This is a reread, and a paper book.... the first time I read it was in college, before I was a Catholic. It was fun to read again now that I can understand most of the Latin parts and understand monasticism and Catholicism better than I did then. The setting is post-nuclear-war Earth and more proximately, a monastery in Utah of the austere order of Leibowitz, who in the book was a scientist and martyr of the nuclear apocalypse. The monastery is devoted to preserving the remnants of pre-nuclear knowledge much as the monasteries preserved books and learning through the Dark Ages after the fall of Rome. The main theme seems to be the tension around scientific knowledge and the fallen nature of man which turns both knowledge and ignorance into weapons of destruction. The Catholic Church is presented as the protecting though sometimes frail glass around the candle-flame of knowledge and hope. The timeframe encompasses the post-war millenium, from the Dark Ages, through re-civilization and all the way back to a replay of nuclear destruction. There are three parts to the story and the general perspective is that of the long-sighted monk, a spectator and sometimes martyr to human evil and also a preserver of human knowledge and civilization. A recurring figure sort of like the Wandering Jew appears here and there in the storyline and may be associated mysteriously with Saint Leibowitz himself. It would be interesting to read alongside Asimov's Foundation Trilogy which has a similar longterm framework but a very different worldview.
#28
Treasures of the Snow
I started reading this to my kids before Christmas and we just finished! Now have started reading Tom Playfair for our Morning Time. We are also continuing with An Island Story and Island Saints, and are reading some of the stories from Famous Men of the Middle Ages.
------------------
I am halfway up on my 2011 reading goal! So that gives me a reason now to slow down. I think the reason I've been reading so much fiction is that it has been such a long time since I read fiction. Non-fiction takes me longer, unless it's one of those self-help books with lots of stories. I have several non-fiction books in the "Current" category of my Kindle that I am slowly working through.
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