Wintersmith by Terry Pratchett

Fiction: Fantasy/Humor. Hardback from HarperTeen. Published in 2006. 336 pages. Purchased from Amazon.com.

As I've mentioned before, I don't shy away from books that are supposed to be for "teens". I enjoy being able to talk about books with my kids, and thus will often read a YA book. However, I would read Terry Pratchett's series on Tiffany Aching even if there were no kids in my house. This latest addition to the series that includes The Wee Free Men and A Hat Full of Sky, while not an overly difficult read, is very enjoyable. My daughter and I fought over who got to read it first (I won, since I paid for it) and both of us finished it in one day. I look forward to listening to Stephen Briggs reading it if Audible will ever make it available.

Publisher's summary:
At 9, Tiffany Aching defeated the cruel Queen of Fairyland.

At 11, she battled an ancient body-stealing evil.

At 13, Tiffany faces a new challenge: a boy. And boys can be a bit of a problem when you're thirteen. . . .

But the Wintersmith isn't exactly a boy. He is Winter itself—snow, gales, icicles—all of it. When he has a crush on Tiffany, he may make her roses out of ice, but his nature is blizzards and avalanches. And he wants Tiffany to stay in his gleaming, frozen world. Forever.

Tiffany will need all her cunning to make it to Spring. She'll also need her friends, from junior witches to the legendary Granny Weatherwax. They—

Crivens! Tiffany will need the Wee Free Men too! She'll have the help of the bravest, toughest, smelliest pictsies ever to be banished from Fairyland—whether she wants it or not.

It's going to be a cold, cold season, because if Tiffany doesn't survive until Spring—

—Spring won't come.

Online book shopping:
Powell's: Wintersmith
amazon.co.uk: Wintersmith
amazon.com: Wintersmith
Audible.com: Not currently available to download from Audible, but available on CD's from Amazon: Wintersmith

Why?

As I've mentioned before, I am very pleased with our library system here in Grand Rapids. It really is fabulous. Here's my query for today though: why is it that when I've requested four or five books and am waiting patiently for them to become available, they all arrive within a day or two of each other? In the last several days I've had five books come in for me through the hold system. That will make three trips to the library this week, and three weeks to get five non-fiction books read. Hopefully I'll be able to renew one or two of them -- I'm not likely to get through that many non-fictions in that amount of time.

Though, it is fantastic to get your hands on a book you've been waiting for, isn't it?

A Red State of Mind by Nancy French

Non-Fiction: Humor. Hardback from Center Street. Published in 2006. 248 pages. Purchased from Amazon.com.

I saw this book recommended on Ocular Fusion. Because we have lived in the North East, the Midwest, the Pacific Coast and the South, I thought I might enjoy seeing her take on the clash between cultures. It's a bit difficult to explain, but some of the chapters were very enjoyable (more like aren't we all silly), while others just seemed rather judgmental about the differences she didn't like. So, I enjoyed her humor, but wished she had be able to keep a less condemning tone throughout the book.

Publisher's summary:
For the first 20 years of her life, all Nancy French knew of the world was Paris--Paris, Tennessee, that is. When the former homecoming queen trades in cow-tipping, big hair, and the Catfish Capital of the World for a new life in the Big Apple, she is in for a real education.

Things get lost in translation when she enrolls in her first women's studies/philiosophy class at New York University ("Women's Studies is the study of why men deserve to be eliminated from the planet just as soon as babies can be grown in Petri dishes and pickle jars come with easy open lids"), gives birth in an Ithaca hospital that bans epidurals and pacifiers, faces down recycling police, and almost gets arrested for leaving a stroller at the Liberty Bell.

It's a far cry from life in the red states -- especially when Nancy reveals her conservative politics and takes a beating from the MOB (Mothers Opposing Bush). Undaunted by her misadventures, she bravely acts as a red-state ambassador, dismantling stereotypes (no, red-staters do not think as slowly as they speak) and affectionately describing the nuances of the evangelical subculture.

Whether or not you share her passion for chain restaurants, Wal-Mart, and the GOP you will fall in love with Nancy's All-American brand of spirited humor and find yourself in A RED STATE OF MIND.

Online book shopping:
Powell's: A Red State of Mind
amazon.co.uk: A Red State of Mind
amazon.com: A Red State of Mind
Audible.com: sorry, not currently available as audio from Audible

Linkage: Christianity Today

I enjoy looking at book lists, and CT has a new list this month. I've only read 16 of the 50. How about you?

The Top 50 Books That Have Shaped Evangelicals

The Emotionally Healthy Church by Peter Scazzero

Non-Fiction: Christianity. Hardback from Zondervan. Published in 2003. 224 pages. Purchased at Baker Books Used Books.

Much of what author Peter Scazzero says in this book rings true with me. I don't know how easy it would be to get people in a congregation to move forward in the ways he suggests, but I do believe doing so would make a big difference in the body of Christ.

Publisher's summary:
True Discipleship Integrates Emotional and Spiritual Health.

New Life Fellowship in Queens, New York, had it all: powerful teaching, dynamic ministries, an impressive growth rate, and a vision to do great works for God. Things looked good—but beneath the surface, circumstances were more than just brewing. They were about to boil over, forcing Peter Scazzero to confront needs in his church and himself that went deeper than he’d ever imagined. What he learned about the vital link between emotional health, relational depth, and spiritual maturity can shed new light on painful problems in your own church. Here are refreshing new insights, and a different and challenging slant on what it takes to lead your congregation to wholeness and maturity in Christ.

Our churches are in trouble, says Scazzero. They are filled with people who are

· unsure how to biblically integrate anger, sadness, and other emotions
· defensive, incapable of revealing their weaknesses
· threatened by or intolerant of different viewpoints
· zealous about ministering at church but blind to their spouses’ loneliness at home
· so involved in “serving” that they fail to take care of themselves
· prone to withdraw from conflict rather than resolve it

Sharing from New Life Fellowship’s painful but liberating journey, Scazzero reveals exactly how the truth can and does make people free—not just superficially, but deep down. After offering a new vision of discipleship and a revealing, guided self-assessment of your own spiritual and emotional maturity, The Emotionally Healthy Church takes you through six principles that can make a profound difference in your church. You’ll acquire knowledge and tools that can help you and others

· look beneath the surface of problems
· break the power of past wounds, failures, sins, and circumstances
· live a life of brokenness and vulnerability
· recognize and honor personal limitations and boundaries
· embrace grief and loss
· make incarnation your model to love others.

Written in a personal and passionate style, The Emotionally Healthy Church includes hands-on tools, discussion questions, spotlights on key points, and story after story of people at New Life whose lives have been changed by the concepts in this book. Open these pages, and find out how your church can turn a new corner on the road to spiritual maturity.

Online book shopping:
Powell's: The Emotionally Healthy Church
amazon.co.uk: The Emotionally Healthy Church
amazon.com: The Emotionally Healthy Church
Audible.com: not currently available as audio from Audible.com

A Confederacy of Dunces by John Kennedy Toole

Fiction: Contemporary. Unabridged Audio from Blackstone Audio. Published in 1980, recorded 1997. 13 hours and 32 minutes. Read by Barrett Whitener. Purchased at Audible.com.

While I had heard the title before, I really had no idea what this book was about when my Mom recommended it. Since she indicated that both she and my brother had enjoyed it, I decided to bypass concerns about the bizarre title and give it a read. Turns out a strange title was a good fit for this book. The main character makes you waver between laughing outloud and shaking your head in disbelief. It was a very entertaining listen. I spent a fair portion of it anticipating with dread what on earth he would do next, yet sometimes agreeing with his assessment of things. (It's not a rated G listen - probably R.)

Publisher's summary:
"A green hunting cap squeezed the top of the fleshy balloon of a head. The green earflaps, full of large ears and uncut hair and the fine bristles that grew in the ears themselves, stuck out on either side like turn signals indicating two directions at once." So enters one of the most memorable characters in recent American fiction.

The hero of John Kennedy Toole's incomparable, Pulitzer Prize-winning comic classic is one Ignatius J. Reilly, "huge, obese, fractious, fastidious, a latter-day Gargantua, a Don Quixote of the French Quarter". His story bursts with wholly original characters, denizens of New Orleans' lower depths, incredibly true-to-life dialogue, and the zaniest series of high and low comic adventures.

Online book shopping:
Powell's: A Confederacy of Dunces
amazon.co.uk: A Confederacy of Dunces
amazon.com: A Confederacy of Dunces
Audible.com: A Confederacy of Dunces

Christian Audio Free Download - October 06

Christian Audio's October free download is now available. This month it is Tolstoy On Death: Ilych and Master and Man by Leo Tolstoy.

In these two famous short novels, Leo Tolstoy takes readers to the brink of despair. At the end of life worldly ambition offers no consolation for the spiritually empty soul. But Tolstoy is the master of themes of redemption. He turns his morbid topic into hope, leading toward spiritual awakening. Tolstoy offers his readers a lifetime of perspective on a most human subject, death.