Hmm. Here I sit, and thinking about posting. I looked over David's trip pictures again--I don't really need to post more pictures, do I? He did a pretty good job of getting everything in. Except, of course, for the wedding--not exactly a guy's department. :) I have written about the wedding already, but I'll wait to post until I have copies of the pictures my sister took with a friend's (really nice) camera.
Instead I think I will write about the books I've been reading. Haven't had a good book review post for a while, so here you go!
Ivanhoe by Sir Walter Scott
Read this on the trip. Though it's certainly written in the 19th-century style and can get wordy at times, I really enjoyed it; not so much for the plot as for the time period (I enjoy the knights/castles era), the interesting history, and some of the fun characters. It reminded me of reading In Freedom's Cause (a G. A. Henty book about 13th century Scotland) for the first time almost ten years ago; I felt a similar excitement and involvement in the story. I will be reading some more Scott soon, I imagine.
On Asking God Why by Elisabeth Elliot
This was a trip book too. It actually was quite an easy read, probably because it's a collection of essays and articles about a whole variety of topics (abortion, music, divorce, trusting God, and so on). Though not my favorite Elliot book--that award goes to These Strange Ashes or Shadow of the Almighty or Passion and Purity--it's very good.
Ellanor's Exchange by Linda Hayner (author of The Foundling)
Another trip book, though not originally planned as such. It's the story of Ellanor, a daughter of a merchant father who would like her to marry into a title (i. e. marry a lord, earl, or whatnot so the title would descend with the family name). Not as good as The Foundling but I enjoyed it more this third time through than I had before. It's hard at first to catch the historical background and political implications in the author's sparse writing style, but the challenges of a society where marriage for money or titles was common and marriage of mutual regard rather rare are made quite clear. Fascinating.
The Switherby Pilgrims and Jambaroo Road by Eleanor Spence
Don't you love interlibrary loans? Without them I wouldn't be able to have read these books. Bethlehem Books republished them but they obviously aren't in very many libraries; the copies I just read came from Texas. All that aside, these are a fun set of stories about a spinster, Miss Arabella Braithwaite (commonly called Missabella), and ten orphaned children who leave the small town of Switherby, England to settle on a land grant in New South Wales around the year 1825. (Jambaroo Road takes place in 1830 as the children grow up and find occupations.) I enjoyed the interaction between the children and the interesting historical detail about colonial Australia.
That is it for now. Orthodoxy and John Adams are still in progress and I haven't read nearly as much since we got home. Abolition of Man is waiting for the next trip (to Michigan). So many good books out there... And there is a library book sale in a week! I'm looking forward to it.
2 comments:
Sorry my puntuation was horrible so lets try again shall we? i do recall reading Ivanhoe in my younger days and don't remember it (most likely cause I didn't understand it), Anyway as far as the book sale goes, Mom has gone for awile and gathered quite the collection so our libray will be having a major sale as soon as I can covince Mom that we have a book to many (just kidding, about the first part that is!!!)
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