For the Love of Books: A Virtual Feast of Books

(prepare for a long list)

At long last, friends, here is the virtual book list compiled over the last week. What a treat it is to see which books resonate with you, which ones qualify in your estimation as a book worth recommending. I appreciate so much those of you who provided lists; I know that I've already identified a few new books to read (and I'm moving them to the top of my list). And a special shout-out to Daniel Russell (the only man who braved the heavily female Sweet Communion blogworld and offered his contribution) and to Virginia Tillery (who created the fabuloso Book Feast blinkie ) -- salute.

Now, some of my favorite quotes about books/stories, and then the list:

"Reading is a sage way to bump up against life. Reading may be an escape, but it is not escape from my own life and problems. It is escape from the narrow boundaries of being only me." Gladys Hunt

"[stories] help us see, however, that our own story is not big enough, that the world is larger and more varied than our limited experience. ... They help by calling us into relationship – with other people, with other places and times, with creation, and with God." Daniel Taylor, The Christian Imagination

"One book read thoroughly and with careful reflection will do more to improve the mind and enrich the understanding than skimming over the surface of a whole library. Indeed, the more one reads in this hasty, superficial manner, the worse. It is like loading the stomach with a great quantity of food which lies there undigested. It enfeebles the intellect, and pours darkness and confusion over all the operations of the mind." Hawes

"How many a man has dated a new era in his life from the reading of a book." Henry David Thoreau

"The Bible is so good with chocolate. I always thought the Bible was more of a salad thing, you know, but it isn’t. It is a chocolate thing." Donald Miller, Blue Like Jazz

“The magical proposition of the gospel, once free from the clasps of fairy tale, was very adult to me, very gritty like something from Hemingway or Steinbeck … Christian spirituality was not a children’s story. It wasn’t cute or neat. It was mystical, and odd and clean, and it was reaching into dirty. There was wonder in it and enchantment.” Donald Miller, Blue Like Jazz

THE LIST

Anna
Hannah Coulter, Wendell Berry
Poetry by Philip Larking
Gilead, Marilynne Robinson

Daniel
On Mexican Time, Tony Cohan

Debbie
Redeeming Love and Atonement Child, both by Francine Rivers
Nights in Rodanthe and The Choice, both by Nicholas Sparks
A Wife After God’s Own Heart and A Woman After God’s Own Heart, Elizabeth George

Elizabeth
People of the Book, Geraldine Brooks
The Kitchen Boy by Robert Alexander
A Thousand Splendid Suns, Kahled Housseni

Emily
The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society, Mary Ann Shaffer

Jawan
Worldliness: Resisting the Seduction of a Fallen World
When Sinners Say "I Do": Discovering the Power of the Gospel for Marriage, Dave Harvey
Whiter Than Snow: Meditations on Sin and Mercy, Paul David Tripp
Covenants: God's Way With His People, O. Palmer Robertson
Same Kind of Different As Me, Rob Hall & Denver Moore
The Back of the Napkin, Dan Roam
The Waiting Child: How the Faith and Love of One Orphan Saved the Life of Another, Cindy Champnella

Jenny
Burning Bright, Tracey Chevalier
Virgin Blue, Tracey Chevalier
Memory Keepers Daughter, Kim Edwards
The Night Journal, Elizabeth Crook
Animal, Vegetable, Miracle, Barbara Kingsolver

Jessica
My favorite book of late is Peggy Noonan's When Character was King, a biography about President Ronald Reagan. Noonan was his speech writer during his first term in the White House and has amazing insight into the who's, what's and why's that made Ronald Reagan the confident leader that he was. The book is filled with personal stories laced with the humor that Reagan was known for. I am not a political junkie, but I loved this book and finished it with a great respect for our country's former leader.

Kathy
Captivating, Eldredge
You Can Hear the Voice of God, Sampson
The Holy Spirit in You, Prince
Boundaries, Cloud/Townsend

Kim
The Book of Lost Things (super creepy, but well written)
Jane Eyre

Laura
Bible Study: Sonship by World Harvest Mission
Autobiography: A Severe Mercy, Sheldon Van Auken
Faith/Crafting: Faith Books and Spiritual Journaling, Expressions of Faith Through Art, Sharon Soneff
Faith: The Path of Celtic Prayer, Calvin Miller
The Pursuit of God, Tozer
Poetry: The Singer Trilogy, Calvin Miller
Devotional: My Luggage Isn't Heavy, by the missionaries of World Harvest Mission
Cookbook: Keeping Good Company, Roxie Kelley
Fiction: People of the Book, Geraldine Brooks
Burning Bright: Tracey Chevalier
Wanting to Read: The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao, Junot Diaz
An Arsonist’s Guide to Writers’ Homes in New E., Brock Clarke

Melissa
My Name is Asher Lev, Chaim Potok
Redeeming Love, Francine Rivers

Missy
Year of Wonders, Geraldine Brooks
Redeeming Love, Francine Rivers
Twilight series, Stephanie Meyer
Cold Mountain, Charles Frazier

Pam
The Painted House, John Grisham
Secret Life of Bees, Sue Monk Kidd
Nicholas Sparks books

Rachel
Emma, Jane AustenChrist the King, Anne Rice
The Relentless Tenderness of Jesus, Brennan Manning
The Reason for God, Tim Keller
The Beautiful Cigar Girl, Daniel StashowerC
hange Me into Zeus' Daughter, Barbara Robinette Moss
All Over but the Shoutin' and Princes of Frogtown, Rick Bragg
Ellen Foster, Kaye Gibbons
Taste and See, John Piper
Evil and the Justice of God, N.T. Wright
Losing Battles, Eudora Welty
A Confederacy of Dunces, John Kennedy Toole
Odd-Egg Editor, Kathryn Tucker Windham
Selected Writings of Martin Luther and John Calvin
Selected Poems by John Donne

Shirley
Secret Life of Bees, Sue Monk Kidd

Honor Roll (some of Laura's all-time favorites)

I Capture the Castle by Dodie Smith
The Kitchen Boy by Robert Alexander
Year of Wonders by Geraldine Brooks
The Thirteenth Tale, Diane Setterfield
March by Geraldine Brooks
Windows of the Soul, Ken Gire
Scent of Water by Elizabeth Goudge
Pilgrim’s Inn (aka Herb of Grace), Elizabeth Goudge
books by Chaim Potok
books by Francine Rivers
The Nazi Officer’s Wife by Edith Hahn Beer
No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency series by Alexander McCall Smith
The Quantity of a Hazelnut by Fae Malania
The Lenten Tree by Dean Meador Smith
The Bedside Book of Birds by Graeme Gibson
An Egg is Quiet, Dianna Aston
Cook’s Illustrated magazine
Mind’s Eye, Paul Fleischman
short stories by O.Henry
For the Love of Knitting by Kari Cornell

A note on finding books: Melissa asked about where to get books. Obviously, the library is a good source. And often I can borrow one I want to read from a friend who has it. But sometimes there are books you know you'll read again, and these you want to own. Occasionally, I purchase a book I know I want on alibris.com or one of the other online used-book sources. I also check the thrift store, the libraries around town (as Homewood, Vestavia, Hoover, and perhaps others have on-site used bookstores), and used-book stores around town (one, in particular, is near the Whistle Stop Cafe in Irondale). How about you, my blog-reading friends -- any good book sources that you know about?


Well, there you have the list. Hope you leads to many hours of enjoyable, and even life-altering, reading! (If anyone reading this meant to send a list and wasn't able to do so, feel free to comment on this post).

A virtual feast

Years ago, I was part of a lovely group of women who had an unusual feast during the month of November -- a feast of books. We would each bring our favorite books we'd read during the past year, and then each person would share a short synopsis of each book on their list. In the end, one person would compile a large list, and this would be distributed by e-mail to everyone in the group. It made for great reading all year long!

This group hasn't met in a couple of years (sigh), and I miss the women, and I miss the feast. So I decided this morning in a burst of vision to have a virtual feast of books! So here's the deal: Think of your favorite books from the last year -- fiction or non-fiction, children's or adult. Then, either post the list (synopses optional) as a comment here on my blog, or (if the list is long) send me an e-mail (bookchic2@gmail.com). I'll then compile and publish the full listing on my blog Thanksgiving weekend. So ... that means you need to send your list soon -- say, no later than November 26, o.k.?

I can't wait to see what you've been reading!

Weekend happenings

Well, dear faithful blog readers, if you're reading this, that means you haven't given up on me entirely, even though I haven't blogged since last Wednesday. I've finally emerged from my art-cave, where I was obsessively preparing for the church's Christmas Bazaar on Saturday. I thought I'd share a few things from the weekend.

Weekend item number one: Bazaar
God was gracious with the success of my booth. Seriously, by the last hour of the day, it looked almost empty. I was incredibly humbled by everyone's enthusiasm over the crafts and art in my booth. It was pure craziness! It was bittersweet, though, because I found it difficult to socialize at all, or even peruse the other vendors' booths. I soooo wanted to visit with friends (um, didn't get to spend 5 minutes with Kim Hill and Dianne) and to ooh and ahh (how do you spell that phrase?) over everyone's work. So if I participate next year, I'm recruiting the aid of a friend t0 hang out with me and help man my booth. (Must give credit to G-Love, though, who did come by, sit at the booth, and let me pick up a gift of two.) Here's a shout-out to Crissy, Adria, Kim P., Sonya, Mona and the other women of CPC's Women's Ministry, who put this event together. The entertainment, which probably accounted for most of our traffic during the day, was brilliant.

Weekend item number two: Teens at the house
In the midst of the Christmas Bazaar craziness, my two oldest kids had friends spend the night. Friday, we had three teen-age boys around the house all night. Saturday, two teenage girls. Let me tell you about boys baking muffins, and girls pumping gas.

The boys -- As I was working in the "studio" (a.k.a. bedroom totally trashed with art and craft materials) on Friday, the three young men decided to satisfy their sweet tooths with a little homebaked goodness. I know that two of the fellows (uh, that would be the two that don't belong to me) spend a little time in the kitchen, so I wasn't too worried about their cooking venture. But I did find it necessary to warn them about the quirks of my very old, very difficult oven. This oven has always cooked WAY hot (requiring The Cook to decrease both the temperature and the cook time). But now the oven has the added challenge of a bottom element that no longer works. So my instructions to the boys, who were making chocolate chip muffins, were as follows: "Preheat the oven for five minutes on broil (otherwise you'll be waiting 20 minutes for the oven to heat). Then turn the temp down to whatever's listed on the muffin package. Make sure you place the muffin tin on the bottom rack, then place an empty cookie sheet over it so that the top of the muffins won't burn before the inside is cooked through." Sound's simple enough, huh? I left the boys in the kitchen and went back to my crafting. About ten minutes later, I caught a whiff of the appetizing aroma of baking chocolate, and knowing that the boys had gone back to the x-box, I decided I better check on the muffins for them to be sure they weren't overdone. So, I rushed to the kitchen, pulled open the oven door, and found (any guesses?) ... flat muffins. The three teen wonders had placed the cookie sheet NOT on the top rack (as I meant for them to do), but directly sitting on the muffin tin. We all got a big laugh out of that.

The girls -- I left the bazaar on Saturday and had to drive to Trussville to pick up Emma and her friend, Liz. They wanted to shop a bit, so we spent a couple of hours in Target, TJ Maxx and Michaels (ok, that was for me, not for them), before picking up a bite to eat. Then it was time to head home, but we had to have gas or we weren't going to make it home. I was as much out of gas as the van was, so I told the girls they would have to get out in the freezing cold and pump it. Now, mind you, these are two fifteen-year-olds who are learning to drive, so this education needed to happen. Little did I know how much, though. You should have seen the two of them, trying to figure out when to pay (it does say "PRE-PAY" for a reason), how to insert the credit card, how to open the gas cap, even how to operate the pump itself. They were quite a sight, but so proud of themselves for not going a penny over the $7 I told them to put into the tank.

Boys baking muffins, girls pumping gas -- we're a liberated bunch, aren't we?

Yesterday, my adrenaline gave out, and I (VERY uncharacteristically) spent two and a half hours napping. Then I took another half-hour nap after small group. Feeling refreshed, finally, this afternoon. Staying home, teaching my kids, catching up on laundry, answering my 74 unread e-mail messages, and committing to help the G with the support-raising he's been flying solo on for the last couple of weeks. Oh, and looking forward to compiling some good advent resources to post here on the ol' blog. So thanks for reading, and toodles til my next post.

Christmas Bazaar

Yay! Finally, my Christmas Bazaar items are finally coming together. Here's a look:



There'll be entertainment, 30 crafters/artists selling their products (awesome gifts!), and even lunch available for purchase. So if you're in the Birmingham metro are, come to Moody on Saturday; it'll be worth the drive!

Unexpected encounter, and a little about the Christmas Bazaar

Today was my day off. Steven took vacation last week, and at the end of it, I asked him if he would mind giving me a day off. A day with no responsibilities at home. There were two issues at the basis of my request:

• I needed a break (between homeschooling, home management, general parenting, my part-time job as newsletter editor of Crossroads, and support-raising, I'm very busy with responsibilities -- all things I LOVE, but everyone needs a little time off sometimes, right); and
• the need for uninterrupted creative time to work on my artsy little books and jewelry for next week's Christmas Bazaar (more on that later) .
  
  

So I left the house, light-hearted and carefree as I headed to Scrap Etc. in Pelham to use the fabulosa, best-thing-since-homemade-bread AccuCut machine. I was driving along in my van, basking in the music and lyrics of my favorite tunes from Over the Rhine, Derek Webb, Loreena McKennit and the Spares.

As I merged onto the interstate, I saw the ambulance behind me. Lights flashing, siren screeching. Within minutes, my happy little excursion turned into a life-alterring (NOT exaggerating) encounter with my own heart.

The wreck had only just happened, that much was obvious. Traffic hadn't even slowed in the eastbound lanes where the crash occurred, but in the westbound lanes traffic had virtually stopped. The roadside was overflowing with emergency vehicles, stationary now but still frantic with their collection of flashing lights.

That's when I saw it. The car was thrown face-down at about a 45-degree angle -- hood pressed voilently against the pavement, backside jutting high into the air. And just behind the vehicle, ten or more medical personnel, crouched beside what I'm supposing was the wrecked car's driver.

It was a BAD scene. Bad. And before I knew it, I had a knot in my stomach so severe it hurt and a flood of emotions I totally didn't expect. I began to pray -- earnestly, intensely -- for this injured person I didn't know, for the individual's family, for the medical personnel. What to pray, I wondered? Do you pray for healing when you see a scene like this? You do, but healing isn't always God's plan. (He uses struggling for good purpose, His ways are higher than our ways, I know all the seemingly trite responses). But then what to pray? I asked him, and He gave me words. Mercy, God; Be merciful. Grace, God; Be gracious. Mercy, and Grace, whatever they look like in this situation.

And then I repented. From the depths of that painful knot in my stomach, I repented. Of grumbling over, complaining about, taking for granted, and generally de-valuing this life -- this glorious, painful, blessed life -- He's given me.

Repentance was needed. Deep, sure repentance.

I've seen bad wrecks before. I'm not sure why this one affected me like it did (that knot stayed in my stomach for hours), except that I do believe the Holy Spirit grants us fresh encounters with Himself when we least expect to meet Him*, and, in so doing, grants us newness of life** -- glorious, painful, blessed life.

*(though, as He's always with us, shouldn't we live expecting to meet Him)
** (a play on the scripture, dear Bible-studying friends, not a misuse of it)

Now, on a lighter note ...
I promised a little something about our church Christmas Bazaar set for next Saturday. So here, for your viewing pleasure, are photos of the mess my patient hubby has endured over the last several weeks. Watch tomorrow or Tuesday for details about the Bazaar, and sneak peeks at the wares I'll be selling.

One Body. One Voice.

I had a facebook message from a friend in Dublin today; she shared an amazing story of something that's going on in her life. And I rejoiced with this Sister for God's blessing to her.

I also read the blog of a friend from church today; she wrote with words that were full of frustration and hardship and faith. And I anquished with this Friend over common struggles.

Oh, how I love the Body of Christ -- and this deep connection of soul that comes from sharing something so intimate, so true.

So when my sweet friend Whitney Preg gave me a CD with a few songs by The Wailin Jennys, it's no wonder that "One Voice" instantly became a favorite (despite it's non-reformed verse one). The lyrics follow.

"One Voice"

This is the sound of one voice
One spirit, one voice
The sound of one who makes a choice
This is the sound of one voice

This is the sound of voices two
The sound of me singing with you
Helping each other to make it through
This is the sound of voices two

This is the sound of voices three
Singing together in harmony
Surrendering to the mystery
This is the sound of voices three

This is the sound of all of us
Singing with love and the will to trust
Leave the rest behind it will turn to dust
This is the sound of all of us

This is the sound of one voice
One people, one voice
A song for every one of us
This is the sound of one voice
This is the sound of one voice

Favorite autumn recipe

Here, on the eve of the election, I thought I would share my favorite Autumn recipe, Election Lunch.


Election Lunch

1 lg. onion, chopped
1 lb. smoked sausage, sliced and halved
1 tbsp Worcestershire sauce
1 ½ tsp dry mustard
¼ c honey
1 (10 oz) can mild Rotels (or, if you prefer no spice, just plain diced tomotoes)
1 (1 lb) can lima beans, drained
1 (1 lb.) can light red kidney beans, undrained
1 (1 lb) can garbanzo beans, undrained

1. Brown onion and sausage. Drain well.
2. Combine ingredients in large slow cooker, and stir to combine.
3. Cover and cook on low for 2-4 hours.

NOTE: I usually double this recipe because I have a very large crockpot. If you choose to double it, reserve the juice from the kidney beans and garbanzo beans, then add as much of it into your soup as your crockpot will allow.

Serve with cornbread, crackers or fresh homemade bread, and ENJOY!

And two appropriate "quotes" to accompany this post:

Oh this lovely season: "Autumn is a second spring when every leaf is a flower." Camus

On the greatest Kingdom: "For what great nation is there that has a god so near to it as the LORD our God is to us, whenever we call upon him? And what great nation is there that has statues and rules so righteous as all this law that I set before you today?" -- Deut. 4:7-8