A Gathering Light by Jennifer Donnelly

Fiction. Paperback from Bloomsbury Paperbacks. Published in 2003. Purchased at the Datchet Help Point (for 20p)

This was a quick read as it is aimed at the young adult market. I did not realize that it was based loosely on an actual murder until I got to the end of the book and read the author's note. I enjoyed all the word games that the characters played. It did seem to have a bit of that "hope the girl doesn't give up her dreams to get married" type of story line. But, it handles it well enough, I think. Interestingly, the book was published under a different title in the US - A Northern Light.

Publisher's summary:
Mattie Gokey has a word for everything. She collects words, stores them up as a way of fending off the hard truths of her life, the truths that she can't write down in stories.

The fresh pain of her mother's death. The burden of raising her sisters while her father struggles over his brokeback farm. The mad welter of feelings Mattie has for handsome but dull Royal Loomis, who says he wants to marry her. And the secret dreams that keep her going--visions of finishing high school, going to college in New York City, becoming a writer.

Yet when the drowned body of a young woman turns up at the hotel where Mattie works, all her words are useless. But in the dead woman's letters, Mattie again finds her voice, and a determination to live her own life.

Set in 1906 against the backdrop of the murder that inspired Theodore Dreiser's An American Tragedy, this coming-of-age novel effortlessly weaves romance, history, and a murder mystery into something moving, and real, and wholly original.

To buy from amazon.co.uk, click here: A Gathering Light
from amazon.com, click here: A Northern Light

Memorable Quote

"Where is the human nature so weak as in a bookstore?"
-- Henry Ward Beecher

Free Christian Classics to Download

The Christian Classics Ethreal Library comes out of Calvin College in Grand Rapids, Michigan. They've got many christian classics in .pdf, .htm, .pdb, .xml, .txt (as well as others) available for free download.

Several weeks ago the sermon mentioned Julian of Norwich's Revelations of Divine Love and I have just downloaded it from CCEL as a PDF file. They've got quite a selection ranging from Billy Graham's Peace with God to GK Chesterton's Orthodoxy to Dante's Inferno to poetry from John Donne. I see lots of other names I recognize like Martin Luther, Watchman Nee, George MacDonald, Matthew Henry, Brother Lawrence, Edward M. Bounds, John Bunyan ... actually, I'd better stop and just link. Great list of authors. Go and give it a look.

Book Aid International

Putting books into the hands of the world's most disadvantaged readers.

Book Aid International works in 30 of the world's poorest countries, providing over half a million books and journals each year to libraries, hospitals, refugee camps and schools.

Books are the basic tools of literacy and education yet millions of children and adults across the developing world do not have access to them.

Books can make a real difference to people's lives. Farmers, nurses, mechanics, development workers and teachers all need books and information to support their work. Children and students must be encouraged to use books to develop their education and lifelong learning.

The majority of our support goes to rural and urban libraries which are free and accessible to everyone. Book Aid International works with library partners to develop their pivotal role in the community.

For the longer term Book Aid International is supporting the growth of local publishing and bookselling so that affordable books can be produced which reflect the local languages and culture. SOURCE: BookAid.org

Ran across a link to this charity on the Make Poverty History web site. Can't help but take a minute to plug a charity that works towards getting books to kids.

New to the Bookshelf: How To Be A Domestic Goddess: Baking and the Art of Comfort Cooking by Nigella Lawson

Non-Fiction. Paperback from Random House. Published in 2003. Purchased at Books, Etc! in Staines, UK

While we were in Staines yesterday to go to the movies, we had a little time to kill, so we went to the bookshop. I found this baking cookbook by Nigella Lawson, who is a popular UK cookbook author. The title put me off a bit, but here is what she says in the introduction:

"The trouble with much modern cooking is not that the food it produces isn't good, but that the mood it induces in the cook is one of skin-of-the-teeth efficiency, all briskness and little pleasure. Sometimes that's the best we can manage, but at other times we don't want to feel like a post-modern, post-feminist, overstretched woman but, rather, a domestic goddess, trailing nutmeggy fumes of baking pie in our languorous wake. ... So, what I'm talking about isn't not being a domestic goddess exactly, but feeling like one. ... The good thing is, we don't have to get ourselves up in Little Lady drag and we don't have to renounce the world and enter into a life of domestic drudgery. But, we can bake a little - and a cake is just a cake, far easier than getting the timing right for even the most artlessly casual of midweek dinner parties. This isn't a dream; what's more, it isn't even a nightmare."

Publisher's summary:
This volume is not about being a goddess, but about feeling like one. Nigella shows that there can be more feelgood mileage from running up a tray of muffins or baking a sponge cake than in almost any other cooking - and that it's not actually hard. "How to be a Domestic Goddess" understands our anxieties, feeds our fantasies and puts cakes, pies, pastries, preserves, puddings, bread and biscuits back into today's kitchens and our lives. Everything from dairy cakes to chocolate cakes, from brownies to bagels, from gooseberry-cream crumble to double apple pie, from pizza to pistachio macaroons, scones and muffins to cheesecakes and steamed syrup sponge, from baklava to a Barbie cake, as well as children's cooking, Christmas baking and other family festive treats.

To buy from amazon.co.uk, click here: How to Be a Domestic Goddess: Baking and the Art of Comfort Cooking
from amazon.com, click here: How to Be a Domestic Goddess (not released in the US in paperback yet)

BookCrossing.com

bookcrossing:
n. the practice of leaving a book in a public place to be picked up and read by others, who then do likewise.

I stumbled across the BookCrossing web site today and am very intrigued by the idea of leaving books to be found and read by others. Here's what they say are the

"3 Rs" of BookCrossing...

1. Read a good book (you already know how to do that)
2. Register it on BookCrossing.com (along with your journal comments), get a unique BCID (BookCrossing ID number), and label the book
3. Release it for someone else to read (give it to a friend, leave it on a park bench, donate it to charity, "forget" it in a coffee shop, etc.), and get notified by email each time someone comes to BookCrossing.com and records journal entries for that book. And if you make Release Notes on the book, others can Go Hunting for it and try to find it!

I think I may just give it a try and see what happens. The biggest obstacle will be making myself give up a book though. If I manage to find one to leave out to be found, I'll post about it here.

The Diamond Age by Neal Stephenson

Fiction. Paperback from Penguin. Published in 1996. On loan from the Datchet Library.

John checked this one out of the library but was gracious enough to let me read it first! (Thanks, John!) I have read Stephenson's Snow Crash a couple of times, once in print and once by listening via Audible, so I was interested to read another of his books. As with Snow Crash some of the technology went right over my head, but I enjoyed the book all the same. It's definitely Science Fiction!

Publisher's summary:
Poor little Nell – orphan girl alone and adrift in a future world of Confucian law and neo-Victorian values, nano-machines and walk-in body alteration. Well, not quite alone. Because Nell has a friend, of sorts. A guide, a teacher, an armed and unarmed combat instructor, a book and a computer and a matter compiler: the Young Lady’s Illustrated Primer is all these and much much more. Illicit, magical and dangerous, for a start. And highly desirable to a number of powerful people …

To buy from amazon.co.uk, click here: The Diamond Age: Or, a Young Lady's Illustrated Primer
from amazon.com, click here: The Diamond Age : Or, a Young Lady's Illustrated Primer

Podcasts

The subject of podcasts doesn't really fit in the category of this blog, but in a way it does. I do use my iPod to listen to many audiobooks, and though most podcasts will not be "books" per say, they are still a great way of listening to information and thinking about things while on the move. I'm hoping to find some decent sermons to listen to as well as other devotional type materials. (Maybe even get a podcast of our preacher's weekly sermons up and running sometime in the future.) Even if sermons or devotional materials aren't your thing, you're still likely to find someone podcasting on a subject of interest to you.

If podcasting is unfamiliar to you, here is an article explaining what it is all about: Wikipedia on Podcasting

And, here's a link to Podcast Alley that has a great listing of up and running podcasts:



Then finally, if you'd like to set up your own podcast, check out the Podcast about the Podcast.

The Book of the Dun Cow by Walter Wangerin, Jr

Fiction. Used paperback from Hodder & Stoughton. Published in 1978. Purchased through Amazon Third Party Seller kathyhamlet.

I saw this book recommended as a "if you like C. S. Lewis or J. R. R. Tolkien you'll like" book. Not knowing exactly what to expect, it surprised me. I read that the author says that it is not intended to be an allegory, but it sure reads like one. It was not a difficult read, and would make a good book to read aloud to the kids. (If you can figure out how to say Chauntecleer that is.)

On an interesting side note, when looking for info about The Book of the Dun Cow online, I found this site: Jones' Celtic Encyclopedia with some information about another Book of the Dun Cow.

Publisher's summary:
Winner of the American Book Award, Walter Wangerin's allegorial fantasy concerns a time when the sun turned around the earth and animals could speak, when Chauntecleer the Rooster ruled over a more or less peaceful kingdom. What the animals did not know was that they were the Keeper of Wyrm, monster of Evil long imprisoned beneath the earth. And Wyrm, sub terra, was breaking free.

To buy from amazon.co.uk, click here: The Book of the Dun Cow
from amazon.com, click here: The Book of the Dun Cow

The Love of Words

Last October in a From the Bookshelf entry, I wrote about our Dictionary of Etymology.

Here are a couple of links having to do with etymologies and words:

Online dictionaries of etymology:

Online Etymology Dictionary
Behind the Name

A word game:

Etymologic: the toughest word game on the web

Crossword puzzle help:

One Across
Amo's online crossword puzzle dictionary

Word a Day E-mails:

A.Word.A.Day
Ask Oxford Word A Day

Anagrams:

Internet Anagram Service
Anagram Genius