June 2011
I dabbled a lot in my reading this month, mostly educational philosophy—The Sciences (Edward Holden), Safely Home (Tom Eldridge), The Swedish Drill Teacher (M. H. Spalding), Home Education (Charlotte M. Mason), When Children Love to Learn (Elaine Cooper), For the Children’s Sake (Susan Shaeffer). I was in the middle of Punished By Rewards (Alfie Kohn) when someone else requested it, and I had to return it to the library. It’s back on my queue! I hope to include it in a future installment of reviews.
I did manage to complete some reading this month, and there are three “new” titles that I’m especially excited to share—The Red House Mystery (A. A. Milne), The Face of the Fields (Dallas Lore Sharp), and Ralph Vaughan Williams: A Study (Hubert Foss).
Books Read This Month
These are books that I read entirely for the first time this month.
This large and chunky book features really stunning photography! Sonya Shaeffer of Simply Charlotte Mason actually recommends using Frans Lanting for a modern “picture study”*—and I can see why. These richly-colored photographs are “up-close and personal” portraits of animals as individuals and in groups. The photographs are printed over glossy full pages and double-page spreads, accompanied only by brief identifying notes. More detailed notes are located at the end of the book. Unfortunately, the author does not give glory to the Creator for the marvelous design of these creatures. The introduction and endnotes prominently feature evolutionary thought. There are multiple references to “millions of years” and to humans’ supposed “kinship” with animals, especially apes. Environmentalist sentiments are also expressed.—“Orangutans are close cousins to humans, but we have not treated them like relatives.” Never mind natural selection...
* “Picture study” is included in the broad curriculum of a Charlotte Mason-style eduction. It’s a lesson in observation and appreciation of fine art.
More gorgeous photographs by Lanting are featured in this huge book, a glimpse into the lush and mysterious world of the jungle. Secretive animals and rare flowers are brought before our eyes. Again, evolutionary theory takes prominence in the several written sections. The introduction acknowledges the influence of Charles Darwin, evolutionary biologist Edward O. Wilson, and evolutionary anthropologist Loren Eiseley. There are repeated references throughout the text to evolution and “millions of years.”
This is such a bright, playful little murder mystery. (I realize that sounds ironic, but what do you expect from a detective novel written by a humorist?.) All the classic elements are here—amateur detectives, locked doors, and secret passages. You will laugh, but you will also think.
Mark Ablett is entertaining a house party at the Red House when he announces that his long-lost brother Robert, the black sheep of the family, will soon be arriving from Australia. Shortly after Robert arrives, he is found dead—shot through the head in a locked room. Mark has disappeared and the police make no headway, so house-guests Antony Gillingham and Bill Beverley decide to solve the mystery themselves. They make a charming Holmes and Watson pair as they use clues and intuition to discover the criminal.
Finally, here is a good mystery novel that I can share with my younger siblings! (Even the eight-year old is trying his teeth on it.) There is repeated mild language; “ass” was an affectionate term used between friends. You can read this entire book for free at the Gutenberg Project.
This book tells the story of how a poor shepherd boy became one of the world’s great artists. While tending his father’s sheep, Giotto would draw amazingly with nothing but rocks and dirt; but when the artist Cimabue introduces the talented young boy to paint and later takes him as an apprentice, Giotto’s frescos are celebrated throughout Europe. The illustrations are in the (rather flat) style of Giotto himself, complete with “gilding.” I give the book only two stars because of moral issues. In this story, Giotto meets Cimbaue after disobeying his father’s instruction to stay in the house (as punishment for letting a sheep wander away while he was absorbed in his drawing). The tone of the story communicates that Giotto’s parents were ignorant and oppressive, and that Giotto had to disobey them in order to eventually realize his potential. This sympathetic portrayal of sin is not appropriate for young children, the audience to whom the book is directed.
06/24 The Face of the Fields. Dallas Lore Sharp. ✩✩✩✩
This 1911 collection of nature essays by Dallas Lore Sharp would be worth just three of them (or any one of those three)—the wildly funny “Turtle Eggs for Agassiz,” the equally amusing “The Scarcity of Skunks,” and the heartwarming “A Commuter’s Thanksgiving.” The following are summaries of five notable essays included in this collection.
I am one who enjoys reading the acknowledgments section of books; I wonder over each name and the hidden contributions made to the book. In his essay “Turtle Eggs for Agassiz,” Dallas Sharp shares the remarkable story of John Whipple Potter Jenks, a man mentioned only in passing in the acknowledgements of Louis Agassiz’s monumental Natural History. Agassiz’s book was lacking only one observation, and he needed very fresh turtle eggs to do it—”not a minute over three hours from the minute they were laid.” Jenks promises to get them for the great scientist, little imagining the effort he would have to make! He observes a pond hours every morning for weeks before he trails a finicky mama turtle to her nest-making. A little pail of sand is soon full of eggs, and Jenks must get to Boston from Cambridge in under three hours—by horse-cart, steam train, and cab! It’s a fantastic and hilarious race to get the turtle eggs to Agassiz in time. It has been awhile since I’ve laughed aloud so many times while reading!
In the “The Scarcity of Skunks,” Sharp has moved to the country and is self-righteously indignant at his neighbors’ killing of skunks. Sharp himself decides to harbor a wild skunk on his property, hoping to teach the ignorant country-folk the value of skunks in the natural circle of life. Sharp is smug until he decides to raise chickens; then he understands the countryman’s wry expression: “I never yet see a scaac’ty o’ skunks.” (This reminded me of a similar story told by Michael Pollan in his book Second Nature: A Gardener’s Education.)
In “Hunting the Snow,” Sharp and his young sons follow the storied tracks of wild animals in the fresh snow. “‘Bagging our quarry’ meant trailing a creature to its den, or following its track until we had discovered something it had done, or what its business was, and why it was out. We were on the snow for animal facts, not animal pelts.” The hunt begins at the hen-yard gate and follows the trails of a skunk, a hare, a mouse, a squirrel, a weasel, a fox, and an unfortunate water-rat.
In “The Clam Farm,” Sharp uses the failing clam industry to demonstrate the need for wise conservation. With gentle humor, Sharp deplores the unwise, short-sighted practices that have led to a shortage of clams; and he uses this miniature crisis to highlight the larger epidemic of “abandoned” farms. “We have been a nation of wasters, spoiled and made prodigal by over-easy riches; we have demanded our inheritance all at once, spent it, and as a result we are already beginning to want—at least for clams.” Sharp called for change: “The day of the abandoned farm is past; the day of the adopted, of the adapted, farm has come. We are not going to abandon anything anymore, because we are not going to work anything to death anymore.”
“The Commuter’s Thanksgiving” is a heartwarming eulogy to all the “inconveniences” of the good life—your own wife, children, house, land, and chores. I especially liked Sharp’s perspective on chores (”small, whole, various domestic jobs”) as ballast in a man’s life. Sharp concludes, “But if I never become anything great,—the Father of my Country, or the Father of Poetry, or the Father of Chemistry, or the Father of the Flying Machine,—why, I am at least the father of these four shining faces in the lantern light; and I have, beside them, handed down from the past, a few more of life’s old-fashioned inconveniences, attended, gentle reader, with their simple old-fashioned blessings.” If I wasn’t already convinced about this book’s place on my wish-list, this essay clinched the matter! (Read a passage from this essay in my post “An Inconvenient Life.”)
Other essays included in this collection are “The Face of the Fields,” “The Edge of the Night,” “The Nature Writer,” and “John Burroughs.”
Mr. Sharp served for a time as a Methodist Episcopal pastor, but several of his essays express an almost mystical reverence for nature. A few times he expresses the idea that earth is the “perfect” home (at least for the present time), preferable even to Heaven. I think we as Christians need to remember that we are pilgrims here!
You can download and read this entire collection for free on Google Books. This was my first of Mr. Sharp’s writing, and hope it will not be my last. Thanks to his impassioned essay “John Burroughs,” I plan to also read some of that writer’s nature-essays and books.
I’ve read a few of Anna Katherine Greene’s distinctive American mysteries, but this was my least favorite. Six-year old heiress Gwendolyn Ocumpaugh mysteriously disappears from a bungalow on the grounds of her home on the Hudson River. Mrs. Ocumpaugh clings too eagerly to a theory of accidental drowning; what does she know? Our detective narrator eventually solves the main point of the mystery, but by a (major) coincidence. Incidentally, this crucial plot twist I guessed myself near the beginning of the book, which certainly made the ending rather flat for me. Most disappointing was an account of a recurring supernatural (or hallucinogenic?) phenomenon, which is never explained and serves only to justify why part of the bungalow is sealed off. This book involves violent death and the foiled elopement of a married woman. There is one strange, fanatically religious man that puts Christianity in a poor light. It’s mysteries like these that make me really grateful for ones like The Red House Mystery (see review above).
Other Books
These are the books that I revisited or did not read completely.
After enjoying Berry’s essays for years, I decided to finally try his fiction; I started with Nathan Coulter, the first in Berry’s acclaimed Port William series. I was very disappointed with it. The story and descriptions dwell too much on drunkenness and debauchery. I realize that Berry is painting a “realistic” picture of life, but I think it could be done more circumspectly. I will try another of Berry’s novels before I decide to stick to his nonfiction.
Miss Fannie loves hats!—and her closet is full of big, beautiful hats. When she is asked to donate a hat to the church fundraiser, Miss Fannie can’t decide which to choose.—Each one has special memories attached to it. Most special of all is the pink straw hat with the silk roses, the famous hat Miss Fannie has worn to church every Easter for over thirty years. Could she possibly give that away? “With Christ all things are possible.” This is such a sweet picture-book for girls of all ages! I love the portrayal of Miss Wanda caring so gently and lovingly for her old mother at home (not “a” home). It’s a beautiful example this culture needs.
In this gentle picture-book a young girl shares a glimpse into the busy day of her family. They work together, learn together, read books together, play elaborate games outdoors, pray together, eat together, and make music together. The watercolor illustrations are extremely detailed and a delight to study. This has been a favorite of mine from the first!
Heirs and Rebels. Ralph Vaughan Williams. Gustav Holst. ✩✩✩
This is a collection, edited by Vaughn Williams’ wife Ursula Woods, of the correspondence between two English composers who were fast friends for over forty years. I borrowed this book to study for a lesson I taught about Vaughan Williams. There wasn’t much in the letters that was interesting to me (many were disjointed or fragmentary), but I found Vaughan Williams’s article “The Composer in Wartime” (included in the appendices with other short writings by both composers) to be interesting, inspirational, and a great insight into the composer’s patriotism.
Ralph Vaughan Williams: A Study. Hubert Foss. ✩✩✩✩✩
This is an excellent book that I highly recommend to anyone interested in learning more about the Romantic English composer Ralph Vaughan Williams. There are so many fascinating details and observations here about the man and his music. Most interesting is the “Musical Autobiography” contributed by the composer himself. This was invaluable to me in preparing a study for the Soirée Society of the Arts, and it now finds a place on my personal wish-list!
Additions to the Library
These are the books that were added this month to my personal library. These titles are always carefully chosen and have my highest recommendation. Read more about them at Bibliotheca.
Whitefoot: A Tale from the Center of the World. Wendell Berry. Davis Te Selle. ✩✩✩✩✩
(I reviewed this last month.)
My Mommy, My Teacher. Johanna Bluedorne. ✩✩✩✩✩
(See review above)
Music
I really enjoy listening to Andrea Bocelli, and this month I played over and over two special favorites of mine from his album Sogno: the title song and “Mai Piu’ Cosi Lontano.” I also like “Immenso.”
Our assignment for Vaughan Williams Month was to collect songs from our cultural heritage. We met with or phoned relatives to ask them about the songs and music they enjoyed when growing up. Second Brother and I talked to “Grandpa.”
When he was about ten years old, our grandpa loved to listen to Hank Williams on the family radio— mostly on the weekends, after the week’s work was done. (This radio was a primitive contraption.—A wire ran from the radio to an iron stake in the ground. You could sometimes get an electric shock by touching the ground around the stake!)
Hank Williams was a country Western songwriter and singer—one of the most popular of his time. Grandpa remembers attending one of his concerts—a one-night stand in Fackler, Alabama. He probably went with his brother Andy and others he doesn’t remember.
One of Hank Williams’s biggest hits was the 1951 song “Hey, Good Lookin’.” His version of the song was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 2001. You can watch a recording of a live performance by Hank Williams on YouTube HERE. (A commenter there tells about his grandfather singing this song to the grandmother when she was cooking dinner. How CUTE is that?)
One of my gifts to Next Sister on the occasion of her graduation was three of her favorite songs.
Hang On, Little Tomato. Pink Martini. ✩✩✩
This song is for any tomato that’s having a tough time. “Something’s coming up ahead/ To turn your tears to dew instead.” China Forbes has a lovely voice. You can hear her sing the entire song at YouTube HERE.
Sunshine, Lollipops and Rainbows. Lesley Gore. ✩✩✩
This unapologetically frothy song may have little substance, but the effervescent tune is sure to cheer the gloomiest day. “Sunshine, lollipops, and rainbows—everything that’s wonderful is what I feel when we’re together.” You can watch Lesley Gore sing it at YouTube HERE.
What Happy Is. The Josties. ✩✩✩
This musical, home-schooled family tours Canada and the U.S. to do concerts, but we know them better as creators of fun and zany “flicks” popular at YouTube. (HERE is their channel.) You can watch the official music video (and the rest of their videos) at the Jostie’s site HERE. “I know where happy is, where it really is. It’s in God, it’s in Him. He’s the Lord, He’s my strength.”
Photograph: It does. ;-) This is one of my favorite bookmarks, a birthday gift from a cousin. It never fails to make people laugh! That beautiful leather booklet to the right is the new cover for my Nook. (Electronic bookmarks are less cute, but just as useful.)
Photographs and text © 2011.
Friday, July 8, 2011