Summer Reading Notes

What I have been reading of late:

• Vile Bodies by Evelyn Waugh: Laugh aloud funny satire of British society of the 1920s. I had only read Brideshead Revisited by Waugh. A very different book. I was glad to be introduced to this side of Waugh. It made me want to read more by him.
• Memento Mori by Muriel Spark : I think I saw this book mentioned on Melissa Wiley's blog . Muriel Spark was a convert to Catholicism. I had seen her pop up several times in other blogs about Catholic writers. I wanted to read something by her. After finishing Memento Mori, I realized I had read another book by her,The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie, which I didn't like at all. Mercifully, I didn't remember, because maybe it would've kept me from reading MM. In one of those serendipitous reading acts, MM was a great follow up to Vile Bodies. Both were British, both were satirical, both were funny, both had a depth behind the comical.
• Mere Christianity by C. S. Lewis: I have to confess I am not a big fan of Lewis. I know that is probably heretical to most but, it is the truth. Thankfully, Mere Christianity is different. I have been meeting weekly with some ladies to discuss this book. There is so much to talk about! I am not finished with this yet and I wish I had started blogging about it. It would make it stick better.
• Crooked Adam by D.E. Stevenson: Satisfying, is the word for this read. A good old fashioned spy story, Crooked Adam (if I remember correctly) was published during WWII. It is fast paced and keeps your interested. A great summer reading! (Recommended by A Library is a Hospital for the Mind ).
• Mansfield Park by Jane Austen: I listened to this from Librivox. Books on this site are read by volunteers, not professionals, so the quality of the reader varies. That was certainly true of the reader of MP, some where very good and some, not so much. But, hey! it is free. I am not complaining. I enjoyed MP immensely. It was a great companion while cooking, cleaning or folding clothes. (note: the 1999 is awful. Nothing like the book!)
• Before Pentecost, I picked up John Paul II encyclical on the Holy Spirit (Dominum et Vivificantem). It is a challenging reading but so worthwhile. I am three quarters into it and planning on re-reading so I can write about. It would be a great way of digesting the information.
• No Country for Old Men by Cormac McCarthy: Violent, violent! It was like watching a Clint Eastwood movie. The first 100 pages I wasn't sure I was going to finish it but, it kept me going. This is one of those books that you need to have somebody to talk about it with. So, I gave it to M. to read.
• Simply from Scratch by Alicia Bessette: Just OK. Nothing great. It is her first novel and somehow it felt too formulaic, to cliché, kind of like a chick flick between too covers.It wasn't bad but it is forgettable.
• Son of Charlemagne by Barbara Willard (with the kids): we are not completely finished with this one. Good story and it has created some rabbit trails. It had us searching all over the net about Charlemagne and his family. It also led us into a search for information on the Saxons and this, in turn, took us to the Vikings.
• Yesterday, I began Vanishing Act by Jodi Picault. Not much to report on this one yet. But it promises to be intense as any other Jodi Picault book I have read before.
• After Mansfield Park, I decided to give the Itunes U a try. I have been listening to some lectures on European Civilization from the 17oos to 1945. It is an interesting course. The lecturer, John Merriman, manages to pull some interesting lectures, even though he has this annoying stammering habit, and he curses and, he has a somewhat dislike of the Catholic Church. Even with all those strikes against him, I am still enjoying the class.

The Spear by Louis de Wohl

Today we finally finished The Spear. This book was our Lenten reading but it is a long book, 400 pages long. It is the story of Cassiua Longinus a Roman soldier whose father is betrayed and cheated out of his family fortune. Cassius sets to avenge his father's misfortune and ends up first a slave and then a soldier in Judea. In Judea he comes on contact not only with the puzzling Jews but with the even more puzzling followers of Rabbi Yeshua.

The books is masterfully done. De Wohl pulls together Scripture and his own imagination, and the result is a believable and well told story. The descriptions were in tad too long for the kids. It was a little anti-climatic to read the scene of the crucifixion on Easter Monday but, it was compensated by the reading today of the events following Pentecost. It was a great story and it really enhanced our Lent by fleshing out the events leading to the death of Our Lord.

Just Finished: The Fisherman's Testament by César Vidal

In the Fisherman's Testament, César Vidal takes us to the final days of St. Peter's life. Nero, curious about the Christians, wants to judge Peter himself. The book is told through the eyes of a Roman official, Marcus Junius Vitalis, who has been called by Nero to assist him in the proceedings.The book is an account of the trial in which Peter, interrogated by Nero and Vitalis, recounts his life with Jesus as well as the Master's teachings.

I really, really wanted to like this book but I didn't. I was expecting a book along the lines of Louis De Wohl's masterpieces. I was expecting a book that recreated Peter's trial in a more credible way. I was expecting one of those books that take you to the scene in such a way that you think you were there. This book was really a retelling of the Gospel of Mark with a thin plot thrown in for good measure. The book has some happy moments but overall it felt contrived and boring.

Just Finished: Horses of Heaven by Gillian Bradshaw

I love to discovered new authors! Gillian Bradshaw is a writer of historical fiction and as the search on Google yielded, she has also written some children books and some science fiction and fantasy. Horses of Heaven takes place in the region between the Middle East and India: The kingdoms of Saka and Bactria. Apparently these kingdoms are real. I have to say that I have never heard of them. The time of the story is after Alexander the Great but before the rise of Rome as a world power.It is the story of the Bactrian king's sister who has been given in marriage as a way to seal an alliance between two neighboring kingdoms that are facing a common enemy. She is a Buddhist who has trained herself in the ways of duty and detachment. Her training doesn't serve her well when she is faced with the repulsion she feels towards her husband. She is determined to do her duty but the more she tries, the more her efforts make the king mad because he demands, and wants to obtain, something she can't give: love. She, who thought love to be impossible finds herself falling in love with the king's son, Izaz. He, who also loves her, is determined not to betray his father. Events get in the way and they are finally thrown together.

The book is interesting and the story is well told. At first I had trouble getting into the book, the descriptions were detailed and, as much as I like historical fiction, I don't like detailed descriptions of things that I find difficult to picture in my mind. Once the story picked up it was hard to stop reading. That said, there were some things I did not like about the book. First, I did not like the mix between historical fiction and fantasy. Personally I think the book would have been better without that horse (or god)that kept appearing. It seemed as an added element-like the author didn't know how to solve the problems and needed some "supernatural" intervention. Also, the story was told as an account written by one of the queen's attendants.But the story goes into great details, like the persons thoughts and inner feelings and emotions, that another person can't possible know. That really bothered me. It took credibility away. I kept asking "how would you know that?". In sum, I liked the book well enough, enough to search for other books by the same author but, it is definitely not one of my favorites.

Just finished reading:

Uncommon Reader by Alan Bennett: Enjoyable little book. While taking her dogs for a walk the Queen of England stumbles upon the Bookmobile. After all the racket her dogs caused she felt compelled to check out a book. Poor Queen! She didn't know what ride she was about to begin. One thing leads to another and the Queen learns to enjoy reading more and more. Totally fictional but really enjoyable. I appreciated following the development of the Queen as a reader. First the light, indiscriminate reading; then learning to be more careful, reading more serious authors and starting the dialogue with the authors. I love the passage when she realizes that for all her pomp and position, she has no voice and she decides to do something about it.

Hershey Herself by Cecilia Galante: This is one is a young adult fiction title. Hershey is a twelve or thirteen years old girl living with her mom, baby sister and her mom's abusive boyfriend. She has taken upon herself the responsibilities of the well being of her family. She seems to know better than her mom what is good for their family.

With the help of her friend Phoebe, Hershey devices a plan to drive Slade, the cruel boyfriend, crazy hoping that the mother will have the sense to leave him. This plan proofs more disastrous that she ever imagined. They left but instead of a rosy life without Slade, they end up living in a battered women's shelter. There unexpected things happen and Hershey discovers a gift that will get her a chance to do something to repair the damage and alleviate her guilt.
I can't say I liked the book. Maybe I should say that I liked it but didn't love it. The writing was OK. The characters were likable if not always believable. I liked Hershey. She has a problem. She lives in a crappy family. She has a crappy life. She stuffs herself with junk food. She is bullied by Andrea. But she has been loved. Her mother loves her and people in the shelter like her. She is honest, frank and stronger that people might think. She has a rich interior life. She has courage. All in all it was an entertaining reading but not my favorite.