Come and Gone

Years ago, I wrote down a quote in my journal that said something like "Some people come into our lives and quickly go.  Some stay for awhile, leave footprints on our hearts, and we are never, ever the same."  I think it was one of those Flavia cards that were popular way back when, but I feel like I'm only just now experiencing it.  Truth is, I've been there before, but not recently.  It's a very bittersweet feeling...


Graduation weekend has come and gone...and so have the seniors.  Last year, I didn't know them well enough after only a year of mostly trying to figure everything else out.  But this year, it was rather overwhelming.  Some of them have confided so much in me this year.  I knew them pretty well by the end of the year.  They asked me to be one of the speakers for their weekend, and I was honored to do so, but that talk was the hardest I've ever given.  The weight of it was at times so heavy that I could hardly move.  It finally came together . . . about an hour before I had to give it.  Felt good, though.  Felt right.


There were a lot of hugs and tears after the Commencement.  Since I teach at a boarding school, some of the kids had been together 40 out of the past 48 months, 24/7.  The knowledge that that time was over was almost impossible for them to deal with.  They were glad to be graduating, but did not want to leave the security of their friends.  I went home and tried to digest it all, but there was too much.


It was my birthday, too, and the class gave me a dozen roses.  One of the first boys I met when I arrived on campus last year introduced me before I spoke.  He told the story of helping me to move into my apartment and there were seemingly endless boxes of books.  "What must this woman wear," he asked himself.  "She has no clothes, only books!"  Made me laugh, because the truth is I have a lot of books, but also clothes...


So now they're gone.  And I, too, will be gone for the summer (mostly).  When I come back, there will be others to step in and leave footprints on my heart.  Yet another reason I teach.........

Making a List . NaBloPoMo

I didn't post yesterday.  And I feel guilty about it!  I had high hopes for posting every day for at least a month, but it's not been a month yet and I've already blown it.  Well, I'll do two one of these days to make up for it, right?  Right!

Today's thought about Beginnings is that I am beginning to make a list of the 15 books that have made the most impact on my life.  A former student, now pastor and published author, put the challenge out on his blog this afternoon and I immediately knew I would have to do it.  I love making lists.  I love reading.  I love reading books that make a difference.  So...what's not to love about this challenge?!  Only trouble is that this kind of thing takes time.  Sifting time.  Sifting through the many books I've read in my life that have made an impact.  So today, for now, I'm beginning the list:

1.  I Love the Word Impossible by Ann Kiemel.  I read this book in my early years of teaching after having heard Ann speak at a  Festival of Faith weekend.  There is nothing complicated about what she shares.  Just an open and loving exploration of the God who loves us beyond all measure.  Simple, yet oh so profound.
2.  Christy by Catherine Marshall.  This book and Robert Specht's Tisha are two true stories of young women at the beginning of their teaching careers, facing incredible challenges--Catherine in the Appalachians and Tisha in Alaska.  Gave me inspiration for my first job in the nowhere land of Michigan.  I could relate to much of what they experienced and wanted to make a difference to my kids the way these two did to theirs.
3.  Tuesdays With Morrie by Mitch Albom.  I read this book in one sitting and cried throughout the entire thing.  Made me want to cherish every moment of my life...and reminded me of the power of my influence as a teacher.
4.  36 Children by Herbert Kohl.  The true story of Kohl's heart-wrenching experience teaching in an inner-city school.  Inspired me even before I had taught a single day.  Helped me understand the inner-city kids in my first couple of teaching jobs.
5.  The Message Bible.  This Bible made the Word seem fresh and new to me as an adult the way the Living Bible did for me when I was a young teenager.  It made me want to sit down and read it through, beginning to end.
6.  Mere Christianity by C. S. Lewis.  A powerful treatment on what it means to be a Christian.  My favorite chapter is "The Shocking Alternative" which gives an incredible discussion on free will and how logical Christianity is.  It just makes sense when you read Lewis!

That's it for now.  I will add to this list...perhaps over the weekend.  I'd be interested to know from any of you what books made the biggest impact on your lives.

Richly Blessed

This time last year, I was unemployed and planning to spend the next year on Sabbatical from teaching.  I thought I would be writing, traveling, and otherwise enjoying life.  Independent.  Answering to no one (at least not a boss) and nothing.  I was looking forward to it.  Who wouldn't?  But an out-of-the-blue phone call from a principal at a boarding school in Arizona changed everything.  A week later, I was on a plane bound for Phoenix.  Less than 24 hours later, even before I had arrived back in Boston, the job was mine.  If I wanted it.  A week later, I was packed and on my way back to Arizona for what ended up being an extremely interesting and rewarding school year teaching English in what almost seemed like a foreign country to me, so different was it from anything else I'd known--both culturally and professionally.

Among the many things that could stand out about that story, two things rise above them all.  The first is the way I felt when I was listening to the principal talk about the job during that first phone call.  My heart leapt up, literally.  It was shocking to me to realize that, to physically feel what it meant to even think about teaching again.  I hadn't considered how much it meant to me because I had been so busy making it OK not to be teaching for awhile.  The second is the way I felt retelling the above story this week to a new staff member.  I could feel myself smiling all over.  I was so happy, through and through, to be teaching!  What a blessing to be doing something with your life and know it's the right thing, the thing you were meant to do!

This sumer, I've been reading a couple of historical novels set during the Civil War.  This was not by design, but mere happenstance.  Perhaps.  The first was an amazing book about a young midwife who wanted to become a surgeon so much that she went to Washington to serve as a nurse in order to get experience working with doctors.  this was during a time when women were not considered fit for medical school, never mind medical practice.  Long story short, she reached her goal, but not before she experienced the horrors and terrors of a most brutal war.  Robin 's My Name is Mary Sutton is a must-read.  It was absolutely impossible to put the book down.  The writing was so distinct and clear that I often felt that I was Marry Sutton.  I lived and breathed her experiences.  Powerful stuff!

The second was the latest in a favorite series of mine devoted to women quilters:  The Union Quilters from Jennifer Chiaverini's Elm Creek Quilters series.  I have loved her books from the first, so I was looking forward to reading this one, especially as I had just finished reading about one woman's role in the Civil War.  I hate saying it, but coming off Robin's fabulous book, Jennifer's paled in comparison.  At first.  I struggled through the first few chapters, forcing myself to read on because I knew from past experience with this author that her stories were compelling and worth pursuing.  Happily, my perseverance has been rewarded.  I am about two thirds of the way done and am enjoying the read, as I had expected to do from the beginning.

Both books have presented a perspective that we don't often read about when studying the Civil War:  that of the women.  In the case of Mary Sutton, she put herself in the thick of things.  I have read Louisa May Alcott's account of her time, however brief, as a nurse in Washington and it parallels what I read here.  Conditions were deplorable for all, the medical staff as well as the patients.  Medical practices were primitive.  Conditions were anything but sterile.  Amputations were myriad.  Deaths were legion.  It's a wonder anyone got out alive!  And yet the doctors and nurses stayed on, doing ther best in untenable situations.

In the case of the Union quilters, they were relatively safe in the mountains of Pennsylvania.  But their loved ones--fathers, brothers, husbands, lovers00were off fighting in those appalling conditions, and it was the women's "job" to find ways to send comfort, courage, and strength to their soldiers in whatever way they could.  They raised money, made quilts, sent provisions, wrote letters, and lived holding their breaths in hopes that their soldiers would come back to them alive and in one piece.

These two books forced me to take a look at my own life--at the things that I want, the things that I think I need.  Put next to those who just want their next breath, who need something as small as a whispered word of encouragement, I for nothing and have need of even less.  Put next to what I thought I wanted a year ago, what I have now is infinitely more, quite unexpectedly so.  As my mother told me so long ago, "When you put your destiny in God's hands, there are no regrets."  I sometimes forget where I have placed myself:  in His hands.  I try to take charge of my own life, follow my own plans, often without thinking things all the way through.  Thankfully, God doesn't forget.  He has had me in His thoughts and plans the whole time.  When those plans are finally revealed, I am chagrined to think I thought I had something better. . .

Prayer found on dead body of Confederate soldier:

"I asked God for strength that I might achieve.  I was made weak that I might learn humbly to obey.  I asked for health that I might do greater things.  I was given infirmity that I might do better things.  I asked for riches that I might be happy. I was given poverty that I might be wise.  I asked for power that I might have the praise of men.  I was given weakness that I might feel the need of God.  I asked for all things that I might enjoy life.  I was given life that I might enjoy all things.  I got nothing that I asked for, but everything I hoped for.  Almost despite myself, my unspoken prayers were answered.  I am, among all men, most richly blessed."

Indeed, so am I.

Stacks

I've been enjoying a new blog, Good Light Comfortable Chair. I especially enjoyed yesterday's entry, "The Stacks in My Study" about magazines and torn-out magazine articles.

I, too, have had stacks. Stacks of books, stacks of magazines, stacks of articles I've torn out for reading and filing. Yes, filing. I have had great plans to be organized. Someday. Meanwhile, I moved this summer and had to seriously consider what to do about all my stacks. Family members who were helping me move of course thought I should just throw things away. Why would I move stacks of magazines and articles I've not read in years? Just throw them out! Start all over in a stack-free house!!! (Notice they did not say that about the books).

Well, I ended up moving some of the magazines, but all of the torn-out articles. Four months later, they are still in stacks in my new study. Waiting for a rainy day to come along so I can go through them, sort them, and file them for future reading/use. Maybe. Consider, though, that I now live in Phoenix where it rarely rains...

100 Books

Have you read more than 6 of these books? The BBC believes most people will have read only 6 of the 100 books listed here. I've read the ones that are bolded. What ones have you read?

1 Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen (Which movie version do you like better...Colin Firth's Darcy or Kiera Knightly's Elizabeth?)

2 The Lord of the Rings - JRR Tolkien

3 Jane Eyre - Charlotte Bronte

4 Harry Potter series - JK Rowling

5 To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee

6 The Bible (I'm enjoying The New Century version right now.)

7 Wuthering Heights - Emily Bronte

8 Nineteen Eighty Four - George Orwell

9 His Dark Materials - Philip Pullman

10 Great Expectations - Charles Dickens

11 Little Women - Louisa M Alcott (have read this many times. Also played "Jo" in a faculty production at Cedar Lake.)

12 Tess of the D’Urbervilles - Thomas Hardy (wrote a very long paper on this book for a doctoral class at UNH...60 pages...)

13 Catch 22 - Joseph Heller

14 Complete Works of Shakespeare (took a seminar in Shakespeare with Ottilie Stafford. We had to read every play we hadn't already read/seen!)

15 Rebecca - Daphne Du Maurier (loved this book. Lauren, Jerry, Connie and I read it back to back to back to back one summer in Loma Linda)

16 The Hobbit - JRR Tolkien

17 Birdsong - Sebastian Faulk (This was fascinating...you really lived the horrors of war in this book.)

18 Catcher in the Rye - JD Salinger (I read this on a student's recommendation. He thought every English teacher should read it, even if I couldn't teach it.)

19 The Time Traveler’s Wife - Audrey Niffenegger

20 Middlemarch - George Eliot (I still have a book report I wrote on this in 11th grade. Don't ask me why)

21 Gone With The Wind - Margaret Mitchell

22 The Great Gatsby - F Scott Fitzgerald (beautifully written...)

24 War and Peace - Leo Tolstoy

25 The Hitch Hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy - Douglas Adams

27 Crime and Punishment - Fyodor Dostoyevsky (taught this one year for Honors English)

28 Grapes of Wrath - John Steinbeck

29 Alice in Wonderland - Lewis Carroll

30 The Wind in the Willows - Kenneth Grahame

31 Anna Karenina - Leo Tolstoy

32 David Copperfield - Charles Dickens

33 Chronicles of Narnia - CS Lewis

34 Emma - Jane Austen

35 Persuasion - Jane Austen (my new favorite Austen book)

36 The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe - CS Lewis

37 The Kite Runner - Khaled Hosseini

38 Captain Corelli’s Mandolin - Louis De Bernieres

39 Memoirs of a Geisha - Arthur Golden (this was fascinating)

40 Winnie the Pooh - A.A. Milne

41 Animal Farm - George Orwell

42 The Da Vinci Code - Dan Brown

43 One Hundred Years of Solitude - Gabriel Garcia Marquez (loved this)

44 A Prayer for Owen Meaney - John Irving

45 The Woman in White - Wilkie Collins

46 Anne of Green Gables - LM Montgomery (I know this almost by heart)

47 Far From The Madding Crowd - Thomas Hardy

48 The Handmaid’s Tale - Margaret Atwood

49 Lord of the Flies - William Golding

50 Atonement - Ian McEwan (amazing movie)

51 Life of Pi - Yann Martel

52 Dune - Frank Herbert

53 Cold Comfort Farm - Stella Gibbons

54 Sense and Sensibility - Jane Austen

55 A Suitable Boy - Vikram Seth

56 The Shadow of the Wind - Carlos Ruiz Zafon

57 A Tale Of Two Cities - Charles Dickens (I love teaching this as a parable on salvation)

58 Brave New World - Aldous Huxley

59 The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time - Mark Haddon

60 Love In The Time Of Cholera - Gabriel Garcia Marquez (a beautiful book...haunting...I was lost in it for days after I finished reading it...read it on the plane to and from Russia)

61 Of Mice and Men - John Steinbeck (this book was edited in the old GBA library...literally words were blacked out!!!)

62 Lolita - Vladimir Nabokov

63 The Secret History - Donna Tartt

64 The Lovely Bones - Alice Sebold

65 Count of Monte Cristo - Alexandre Dumas (I've been to the island prison off the coast of Marseilles)

66 On The Road - Jack Kerouac

67 Jude the Obscure - Thomas Hardy

68 Bridget Jones’s Diary - Helen Fielding (gotta love the movie)

69 Midnight’s Children - Salman Rushdie

70 Moby Dick - Herman Melville (the unabridged version!)

71 Oliver Twist - Charles Dickens

72 Dracula - Bram Stoker (this was for the same doctoral class at UNH. I would not have read it otherwise)

73 The Secret Garden - Frances Hodgson Burnett (many times...the movie too)

74 Notes From A Small Island - Bill Bryson

75 Ulysses - James Joyce

76 The Inferno - Dante

77 Swallows and Amazons - Arthur Ransome

78 Germinal - Emile Zola

79 Vanity Fair - William Makepeace Thackeray

80 Possession - AS Byatt

81 A Christmas Carol - Charles Dickens (I've enjoyed it best in live theatre)

82 Cloud Atlas - David Mitchell

83 The Color Purple - Alice Walker

84 The Remains of the Day - Kazuo Ishiguro (I loved this. It has one of my all-time favorite quotes at the end where it talks about the remains of the day)

85 Madame Bovary - Gustave Flaubert (In French)

86 A Fine Balance - Rohinton Mistry

87 Charlotte’s Web - E.B. White

88 The Five People You Meet In Heaven - Mitch Albom (Tuesdays with Morrie is better...and a favorite to share with seniors)

89 Adventures of Sherlock Holmes - Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

90 The Faraway Tree Collection - Enid Blyton

91 Heart of Darkness - Joseph Conrad

92 The Little Prince - Antoine De Saint-Exupery (also in French)

93 The Wasp Factory - Iain Banks

94 Watership Down - Richard Adams

95 A Confederacy of Dunces - John Kennedy Toole

96 A Town Like Alice - Nevil Shute

97 The Three Musketeers - Alexandre Dumas

98 Hamlet - William Shakespeare (my favorite Shakespeare tragedy and the one I teach instead of Macbeth)

99 Charlie and the Chocolate Factory - Roald Dahl

100 Les Miserables - Victor Hugo (in French, and three times in the live theatre and also as a movie. The musical is wonderful)

Reading Recommendations--a meme

This post has been sitting in my drafts since March 2009. I'd forgotten all about it and just now discovered it unfinished and, obviously, unposted. I finished it this morning and am sharing it in the hopes that some of you will do your own version, sharing books you love and recommend. Thanks in advance for the new reading material!

Four Childhood Books I've read (and re-read):

1. Little Women by Louisa May Alcott (plus all her other books)
2. My Friend Flicka, Thunderhead, Green Grass of Wyoming by Mary O'Hara
3. All the Anne books by L. M. Montgomery and the Little House books by Laura Ingalls Wilder
4. Winnie the Pooh and House at Pooh Corner by A. A. Milne (plus When We Were Very Young and Now We Are Six...the poetry books)

Four “So-Called Classic” books read and never forgotten:

1. Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen (and, a new favorite, Persuasion)
2. A Man for All Seasons by Robert Bolt (play about Thomas More)
3. Hamlet by William Shakespeare (my favorite Shakespeare to teach)
4. Cry, the Beloved Country by Alan Paton (an achingly beautiful book, first read in college, another favorite to teach)

Four personal modern “Classic Novels” favorites:

1. The Chosen by Chaim Potok
2. A Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Betty Smith
3. The Joy Luck Club by Amy Tan
4. Anything by Elie Wiesel; ditto for James Alexander Thom
5. (These are random picks as I have many favorites)

Four authors I've read again and again:

1. Chaim Potok
2. William Shakespeare
3. Louisa May Alcott
4. Anne Morrow Lindbergh
5. Jane Austen
6. Soooooooooo many more!!!

Four authors or books I'll never read again... ever:

1. Bram Stoker's Dracula
2. Charles Darwin's Origin of the Species

3. Can't think of any others right now...
4. ???

Four books on my To-Be-Read list:

1. Girl in a Blue Dress by Gaynor Arnold (a novel about Charles Dicken's wife)
2. Symphony by Jude Morgan (a novel about the inspiration for Hector Berlioz's Symphonie Fantastique)

3. An Altar in the World--A Geography of Faith by Barbara Brown Taylor

4. Wormwood by Susan Wittig Albert (from the China Bayles series)

Four Non-Fiction Books I’d take to a desert island (instead of 2 fiction and 2 non-fiction):

1. The Bible
2. Gifts from the Sea by Ann Morrow Lindbergh
3. Tuesdays With Morrie by Mitch Albom
4. Mere Christianity by C. S. Lewis

Four Book recommendations I have followed (and loved):

1. Elizabeth Peters' Amelia Peabody mystery novels about a 19th century Egyptologist and her eccentric family (a librarian friend got me started reading this amazing series)

2. Stephen King's On Writing (a former student (turned English major) recommended this fantastic book about the craft of writing...I loved it and have used it for my honors composition classes. They, too, love it. And I've never read any of his other books!)

3. Louis L'Amour's westerns, another student recommendation (this time by a reluctant reader)

4. The No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency by Alexander McCall Smith (first in a lovely, lovely series!)

The last lines of one of my favorite books:
It is now some twenty minutes since the man left, but I have remained here on this bench to await the event that has just taken palce--namely, the switching on of the pier lights. As I say, the happiness with which the pleasure-seekers gathering on this pier greeted this small event would tend to vouch for the correctness of my companion's words; for a great many people, the evening is the most enjoyable part of the day. Perhaps, then, there is something to his advice that I should cease looking back so much, that I should adopt a more positive outlook and try to make the best of what remains of my day. After all, what can we ever gain in forever looking back and blaming ourselves if our lives have not turned out quite as we might have wished? The hard reality is, surely, that for the likes of you and I, there is little choice other than to leave our fate, ultimately, in the hands of those great gentlemen at the hub of this world who employ our services. what i the point in worrying oneself too much about what one could or could not have done to control the course one's life took? Surely it is enough that the likes of you and I at least try to make our small contribution cout for something true and worthy. And if some of us are prepared to sacrifice much in life in order to pursue such aspirations, surely that is in itself, whatever the outcome, cause for pride and contentment.

~ from The Remains of the Day by Kazuo Ishiguro (the third to the last paragraph)

What Were We Born to Do?

I spent a fascinating afternoon at the Concord School of Philosophy on the grounds of Louisa May Alcott's Orchard House. The discussion, entitled "What Were We Born to Do? The New Women of the Transcendental Era" was part of the 2010 Summer Concersational Series entitled "In Heaven's Name, Give Her a Chance!" Defining the Sphere of Women in 19th Century America. As I said, fascinating.

The four presenters this afternoon were formidable scholars and authors. Phyllis Cole, from Penn State-Brandywine, spoke aboutMary Moody Emerson (aunt to Ralph Waldo Emerson). Megan Marshall, from Emerson College and the Radcliffe Institute at Harvard, spoke about Elizabeth Palmer Peabody, one of three sisters who were movers and shakers in their time. [Marshall wrote a book about these sisters--The Peabody Sisters: Three Women Who Ignited American Romanticism (2005)--which won the Francis Parkman Prize, awarded by the Society of American Historians; the Mark Lynton History Prize, awarded by the Anthony Lukas Prize Project jointly sponsored by the Columbia School of Journalism and Harvard's Nieman Foundation; the Massachusetts Book Award in nonfiction; and was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in biography and memoir.] Helen Deese, of Tennessee Tech University and the Massachusetts Historical Society, spoke about Caroline Healy Dall. [Deese is the author of Daughter of Boston: The Extraordinary Diary of aNineteenth-century Woman, Caroline Healey Dall, and she is the Caroline Healey Dall editor for the Massachusetts Historical Society.] Finally, John Matteson, John Jay College, spoke about Margaret Fuller and Louisa May Alcott. [Matteson received the 2008 Pulitzer Prize for his book Eden's Outcasts: The Story of Louisa May Alcott and Her Father. He is currently working on a book tentatively titled The Lives of Margaret Fuller.]

To say it was a formidable group would be an understatement. We met in the actual School of Philosophy that Alcott built on his Orchard House property for the purpose of educating adults. Quoting from the welcome we received from Executive director Jan Turnquist, "Mr. Alcott's dream of an adult education facility--one of the first in the country--came to fruition in Orchard House on July 15, 1870, when The Concord Summer School of Philosophy and Literature welcomed adults from all walks of life, and women were embraced as full intellectual equals." Since we were in the original building, there was no a/c or fans (noise would have drowned out the speakers. It was sweltering, but most of us were able to get past the oppressive heat to enjoy the stories the four speakers had to share. I am about half-way through Matteson's book, but I now want to read the other books (of course)...

I'll have more to share tomorrow from the things I am learning, but I'll close here by asking the question these four challenged us with: What were you born to do? Matteson says that when you ask that question, you also have to ask "what are we born to show [others]?" And what are the risks involved? As I sat and listened to the stories of 5 key women who influenced the way I live my life now, I was asking myself what I was born to do? And to what extent have I accomplished that purpose? And what am I doing about achieving it?

Jan Tourquist's parting words were about "simmering." Louisa May Alcott didn't have a lot of time to do the work she felt she was born to do. She had other responsibilities. She talks about her stories simmering in her brain while she was simmering things on the stove. That's the nature of creativity and work for women. Men will do one or the other. But women are charged with doing both if they want to do the creativity. It is rare to have the luxury to do just the one. Certainly it was in the 19th century. I left determined to refine my life's purpose and to find a way to accomplish it even more...and better.

Historical/Fictional Memoirs of Favorite Authors

I've been reading a lot of good books lately which usually means I'm writing less. Such has been the case the past several months. During the school year, it comes down to a choice between those two passions once the school work is done for the night. Books have been ruling so far this spring, with good reason.

Take the book I just finished, The Lost Summer of Louisa May Alcott by Kelly O'Connor McNees. I loved it! And not just because I love Louisa May Alcott (which I do). Even though Kelly writes about an author I've been reading since grade school when I devoured her books one after the other and then back again, it was obvious that she both knew and loved her, too. I felt as if I were seeing an old friend through the eyes of a new one.

The story is one that grabs your attention immediately if you're one who likes behind the scenes kind of stuff (which I do). It answers the question: was there a "Laurie" in Louisa's life. We don't know. Nor does Kelly. But she spins a wonderfully warm and wise story considering one possibility from the summer Louisa and her family spent in Walpole, NH.

Grounded in fact, Kelly's book takes us deep into the heart and mind of this most endearing and independent chronicler of 19th century family life. And while I didn't learn anything new about the actual facts (but only because I have read so much about her myself), I loved every minute of the imagined love affair between Louisa and the possible model for "Laurie." Having played Jo in a production of Little Women years ago, I know a little something about getting into her head, but this experience far surpassed anything I tried to do. Such a good read!!!

Which, actually, brings me back to writing. The books I've been reading lately, the good books, have all been about writers I love, have all been efforts to take us into the minds of these writers and see what inspired the works we've come to love. Most recently, I read Syrie James' The Secret Diaries of Charlotte Bronte and The Lost Memoirs of Jane Austen. Both gave fantastic insights into two other favorite authors of mine.

As with Kelly's book, Syrie bases as much as possible in fact and then poses possible answers to the questions readers have asked for many years. The concept appealed to me immediately. I devoured all three books. These two authors have not disappointed.

Village Treats

My dad has been wanting to take me to his favorite antiquarian book store for a few years, now and Sunday, we finally made it. I have to say it was worth the trip. Surprisingly, it's located in the little Maine village my parents live in, and we've gone by it any number of times but have never stopped in (they have, of course). When you walk in, the smell, that wonderful musty smell of old books, all but overwhelms you. There's a shop cat, who was hiding, and oversized arm chairs in corners for the browsing that inevitably goes on.

As is the case with any book store for me, there were scores of books I wanted to get. I walked around with several while looking at the offerings on other shelves. Some I kept, some I ended up putting back. One, I held on to, even though it was $25 and I didn't really want to spend that much on a single book. There was a whole set of Jane Austen's books reduced from $450 to $200 because the bindings weren't so great. And he had two others for $70 apiece, but I couldn't bring myself to get them either, just so I could say I had some "old Jane Austen" books.

When we finally made our way to the cash register, I went to pay for my books first. My dad was insistent, though, that he pay for them. We went back and forth, me not wanting him to buy the $25 book for me, but he was firm, so I finally relented. The guy (owner) stacked our books up and said "How about $40?" We three gulped, for there was more than $40's worth of books there. My dad said "I can't cheat you like that." But now the guy was insistent. So, we walked out of there feeling very good about our purchase!

Next stop was my favorite primitive/folk craft shop, The Blue Door, also in the village of Alfred, ME. This time, the tables were turned on my dad, as he had never been here, whereas my mom and I go fairly often when I'm visiting. The owner makes quite a bit of her inventory, which is impressive all by itself. But you can also find genuine articles as well, making it an interesting visit, whether you purchase anything or not. That day, I bought belated Christmas presents for friends =)

I love little independent shops like this. There is one in Bolton, MA (where our family lived for more than 30 years before my parents moved to ME) nicknamed "The Salt Box" because it is a saltbox building. I used to say I could never see everything in it, no matter if I were to go in it every single day of the week. It was so crammed full of crafty and antiquey delights. These days, it's a little less crowded on the shelves, perhaps indicative of the economy. Still, a lot of fun to window shop in, if nothing else.

The Gift Outright

The Gift Outright
Robert Frost
The land was ours before we were the land's.
She was our land more than a hundred years
Before we were her people. She was ours
In Massachusetts, in Virginia,
But we were England's, still colonials,
Possessing what we still were unpossessed by,
Possessed by what we now no more possessed.
Something we were withholding made us weak
Until we found out that it was ourselves
We were withholding from our land of living,
And forthwith found salvation in surrender.
Such as we were we gave ourselves outright
(The deed of gift was many deeds of war)
To the land vaguely realizing westward,
But still unstoried, artless, unenhanced,
Such as she was, such as she would become.

I visited Lexington and Concord today, a Veterans' Day tradition I've been keeping for most of the past two decades. I often start my Christmas shopping in these two lovely colonial towns, but I mostly go there to remember...remember my way-back heritage (my mother is a Daughter of the American Revolution), remember what "they did here" that we might freely live here in this country we love that embraces democracy so fiercely and proudly.

I walked around the Lexington Green listening to a Veteran of much later wars play tribute (bottom right hand corner of the picture) on his trumpet ("Taps," "Star Spangled Banner," "The Navy Hymn," and other appropriate pieces). A moving experience, walking through the November winds with the haunting melodies floating over the fallen leaves.

I stopped by the homes of inspiring American writers (Emerson, Hawthorne, Thoreau, Alcott), by the rude bridge that arched the flood, by the homes of those who gave their lives that others might live.

I ate lunch at my favorite Market Cafe in Concord and went to my favorite local book store, The Concord Bookstore. There, I gave in to temptation and bought yet another Jane Austen-related book, A Truth Universally Acknowledged: 33 Great Writers on Why we Read Jane Austen. The clerk asked me if I belonged to the Jane Austen Society. When I answered "not officially," she told me about a MA chapter of the Society that was meeting this coming Sunday and said I ought to go, that I would love it. She is a member herself and said she'd look for me there! Dare I say I am going?!

In all, it was five hours of refreshment, both physically and spiritually. In all, it was exactly what I needed this day. A Gift Outright...

Recommended Recent Reads

I've been on the receiving end of two books from author-friends within the past couple of months.  A former student wrote one of them, chronicling her struggle with anorexia.  A blogger friend wrote the other, a collection of short essays about women in the Bible.  Both books were interesting and inspiring, both were about real women's struggles, even though they lived centuries apart.

Tiffany Schroeder Bartell's book, Healing a Hungry Heart, is honest, poignant, and, ultimately inspiring, especially for young women who struggle with the same issues of self-esteem and perfectionism that Tiffany did.  It is also instructive for people like me, someone who is "in" the book as one of her teachers who had no idea what she was going through at the time, although I remember wondering at things I now understand after reading the book.  Tiffany found her way out of the depths her despair and now helps others with similar struggles.

Trudy Morgan-Cole's lovely devotional/inspirational book, Daughters of Grace, is the perfect book to give your mother, your sister, your daughter, your best friend.  But it is also a great book to share with the men in your life.  It's a collection of essays about 26 women in the Bible, their struggles, their triumphs, and how they relate to 21st century Christian women...and men, too.  Beautifully illustrated, the book paints amazing pictures of lives that inspire.  More to the point, Trudy's words paint the pictures clearly and beautifully.

Both these books are good reads--for you and a friend!

Catching Up

It seems like it's been feast or famine with me on this blog the past three months.  In January, I wrote every day, but in February and March the entries have been few and far between.  It's not like I have nothing to share.  Rather, the time has just not been there to think things out for blogging.  I have also been reading a lot more than usual, and that generally means I write less as a result.

While that was going on, Spring has finally made its way to New England.  All our snow is melted in Massachusetts, but in Maine, at my parents' place in Alfred, they still have a couple of feet of snow in their front yard and almost as much in the back.  It's not very pretty anymore, unfortunately.  I was up there yesterday and captured a funny little chipmunk stuffing his face with bird seed and a Harry Woodpecker flying away just as I snapped the picture.  

Meanwhile, back at the . . . condo, I've also been watching movies.  One was Lawrence of Arabia.   I'm almost embarassed to admit that I have never seen it before.  It was amazing.  I would never have watched it even now, though, except that I read a book recently called Dreamers of the Day where he figures rather prominently.  Until that book, I had no idea that Lawrence was a real person and that the movie was about his real experiences.  The book was beautifully written, by the way.  I highly recommend it.

A Very Austen Weekend

I went on a huge Jane Austen kick this week- end, watching no fewer than three different versions of Persuasion and the Emma Thompson version of Sense & Sensibility with Thompson's comments and the second half of the Colin Firth Pride and Prejudice as well as Becoming Jane Austen.  

Actually, it started Thursday, while I was home sick for two days, so it wasn't quite as concen- trated as it sounded at first.  Still, it was a lot of Jane Austen =)

On top of all that, I had such cabin fever yesterday, that I took a drive up to the North Shore  (Manchester-by-the-Sea, Magnolia, Gloucester, Rockport) and found myself going right back in time.  

See if you don't agree with  the similarities between Gloucester, MA and Lyme, England (setting for Persuasion).

Historical Reading

I enjoy reading historical novels. I was going to say especially about the frontier, but then I thought of a bunch of other especiallys =) so I'll just say that I enjoy reading historical novels. Period. The one I'm reading now is the third in a trilogy by Nancy E. Turner. The books chronicle the fictionalized story of Turner's grandmother as she makes a life for herself in the Arizona Territory in the early 1900s.


The first book, These is my Words, is one of my all-time favorite books ever. I cried and cried through much of it, not because it was so sad, but because it was so beautiful. Written in diary form, you really get to the heart of Sarah Prine's struggles to persevere through all kinds of challenges. Her first marriage was a loveless one, but her second one was amazing. I could not believe that such a relationship could exist...and yet, as I said, it was based on a real-life story.

I did not like the second book, Sarah's Quilt, as much. The love of Sarah's life died, so if felt like much of the heart of the story fell away. But this third one, The Star Garden, is pretty good. Not as good as the first. I don't think anything could come close to that, but I'm enjoying this one. Trouble is, the only time I have to read during the week is right before I go to bed. And here it is almost 11:15 and I'm still up writing...which means it will be at least 11:3o before I can read...and I have to get up at 5:30....so I don't read all that long. Sigh....

Anyway, if you like stories that have good adventure and a deep, true love while showing what what life was like in another era, I highly recommend this series. I understand there is a fourth one on the way. I know I'll be looking for it!

On Writing

I told myself I was going to try to write every day for a month at least once this year. Some of my friends manage to do that and more, but it's a real challenge to me. It's not that I have nothing to say, but it does sometimes seem hard to find something to say out loud to people who don't have to listen to me (as opposed to my students who do...or at least should...).

My Honors English class has been going through William Zinsser's book On Writing Well. They just finished writing travel articles and are now getting into memoir. I love teaching this book. First of all, it's a readable book, even for kids who would never choose to read a book about writing. A dentist friend of mine sent it to me years ago when it was in its second edition. (I now teach from the 30th anniversary edition.) This friend isn't a writer, per se, but he had read this book and loved it and thought I'd enjoy it. I did, and promptly started using it in class. It's a must-read for every writer, and an excellent resource for college students and high school seniors.

Another book on writing that I love to teach (and will be using after we finish this one) is Stephen King's On Writing. Truth be told, it's the only Stephen King book I've ever read, as I'm not a big fan of the kind of writing he has been so successful at. But this book is outstanding. And again, very readable for kids. Even more important, it's memorable for them, and practical. Once you start reading it, you canm't stop. A former student actually recommended it to me and I read it on a cross-country trip to California. I finished before the flight did! Even if you aren't into writing, it's fascinating about why and how someone becomes a writer.

Eudora Welty's One Writer's Beginnings was interesting to me as well. I've used it a few times in writing classes, but it doesn't go over as well as the above too, not sure why. Perhaps because it is just a short memoir as opposed to a memoir plus a how-to for writers.

These are just a few books on writing that I've enjoyed. Are there any that you've read and enjoyed?

In His Steps to Tread

I've been reorganizing things in my house this past week. It's been interesting, as I'm finding all kinds of things I forgot about, or didn't even know I had. One such thing fell out of an old book I was moving around (I have several very old books, some first editions even). I have no idea how old it is (it's a small card), but it's old enough, made in Great Britain...says Mowbrays 5002 on the back.

Here are the words:



God grant you in His steps to tread,
Who came to earth today,
That through His grace you may be led
Along life's thorny way:
Oh, may He satisfy your needs,
With living water sweet,
That flows through Paradisal meads,
Straight from His Mercy Seat.
Oh, may He grant you each desire
Within your heart that springs,
Your every thought with love inspire,
For HIM, the King of Kings.
~H.M. Burnside

I guess it's a Christmas card. Sounds like it, doesn't it? It is signed Charlotte Pan (or something like that), but no date. Anyway, it was a real treat to discover this afternoon!

I just Googled "H.M. Burnside" and discovered a number of her works listed on eBay. She apparently was a songwriter, verse writer, and artist during the latter part of the 19th century. One of her works was listed for $300, "rare," so now I'm wondering if I have something valuable on my hands as well as something pretty and sweet???

All About Books--a Meme

I got this meme from Inland Empire Girl, who got it from Ravenous Reader, a few weeks ago. I enjoyed thinking and writing about reading and the books and authors I love. I'd enjoy reading about your favorites, too. If you do this, come back and let me know!

Do you remember how you developed a love of reading? I'm certain it came from my parents, who read books to us when we were young. My Grandmother Kellogg did as well. In summers when my sisters, a cousin and I spent a week or two with her and my grandfather, she read countless books to us. A few of the ones I specially remember: A Spy in Williamsburg, Litling of Gaywood, the Little House series and other books with historical significance. A book mobile used to come around to our neighborhood in the summer and stop right in front of our house. The rest of the year my mother took us to the library on a weekly basis. I can even remember fighting with my sisters over who got to read books next!

What are some books you loved as a child? The Little House books, Little Women and other Louisa May Alcott books, Lois Lenski books, any biography, the Childcraft series, the Little Pepper books, the Little Maid books, Heidi, missionary books, My Bible Friends, the Bible Story books, and many, many more.

What is your favorite genre? I like contemporary novels, mysteries (particularly those with women detectives), memoir, biographies, historical novels, classics found in literature classes...

Do you have a favorite novel? I have so many, it's impossible to list them all, but some include all books by Jane Austen, Louisa May Alcott, Elizabeth Peters' Amelia Peabody series, the No. 1 Ladies Detective series, books by Earlene Fowler, Susan Whitig Albert, Rosamunde Pilcher, Maeve Binchy, Betty Smith (A Tree Grows in Brooklyn), Chaim Potok (The Chosen), Tracy Chevalier (Girl with the Pearl Earring), ad infinitum =)

Where do you usually read? In bed or in my rocker in the living room.

When do you usually read? Always before I go to bed, even if it's just a few minutes, always when I travel and whenever else I can find time.

Do you usually have more than one book you are reading at a time? Yes. I usually have something secular and something inspirational or spiritual going, and then there are the books I teach as well. I don't always thoroughly read them while the kids are reading them, but I always skim and research them anew at the very least.

Do you read nonfiction in a different way or place than you read fiction? Yes. I usually read nonfiction with a pen or highlighter in hand, although I will often have to find one for other books, too. If they are mine, that is. If they belong to the library or someone else, then I still have pen in hand, but a notebook besides.

Do you buy most of the books you read, or borrow them, or check them out of the library? I usually buy most of my books, much to the shrinking of my apartment! I love bookstores and can spend hours going through the piles of books on the tables and shelves. I love the library, too, but don't tend to patronize it the way I did as a kid because it takes me longer to get through books as a working adult. In a way, I would rather buy a book than food!

Do you keep most of the books you buy? I keep them, but love to share them with my mother, my sisters, and my nieces. I keep saying I should thin the book shelves out, but have only done that once or twice...

If you have children, what are some of the favorite books you have shared with them? I don't have children of my own, but I love sharing books with my (teenager) students. I don't require them to read anything I haven't enjoyed or appreciated myself. Books I've actually given to whole classes of students: Mere Christianity by C.S. Lewis, Tuesdays with Morrie by Mitch Albom and On Writing by Stephen King. Other books kids have loved are A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, The Chosen, My Name is Asher Lev, Pride and Prejudice, A Tale of Two Cities, and many more. For children, I like to share any of Shel Silverstein's books, Willy the Wimp and Willy the Champ, any of Arnold Lobel's fabels, The Runaway Bunny, Stellaluna, and many more.

What are you reading now? I am reading Sandra Dallas' Buster Midnight's Cafe and The Writing Diet by Julia Cameron.

Do you keep a To Be Read list? I just have a huge stack of books by my bed, and on the floor in my living room, and a whole bookcase by my rocker, and a stack in my study and . . . =)

What’s next? Not sure. Probably just whatever book I see first. I've been in a Jane Austen mood lately, though, and have several books connected to her one way or another, most recently biographies. She's like comfort food to me.

What books would you like to reread? Anything by Anne Morrow Lindbergh, Night of Rain and Stars (because I've now been to Greece), anything Jane Austen...

Who are your favorite authors? Anne Lamott, Elizabeth Berg, Elizabeth Peters, Susan Whitig Albert, Earlene Fowler, Carolyn Hart, Chaim Potok, Elie Wiesel, Thomas Hardy, Isak Dinesen, Alexander McCall Smith, Jane Austen, Anne Morrow Lindbergh, and many more...