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Laudable Linkage and Quotes

Posted on August 3, 2013 by Barbara Harper

Here are a few noteworthy reads from the last week:

How to keep Millennials in the church? Let’s keep church un-cool, written by a Millenial. “What I need is something bigger than me, older than me, bound by a truth that transcends me and a story that will outlast me; basically, something that doesn’t change to fit me and my whims, but changes me to be the Christ-like person I was created to be.”

Is Glory God’s Only Goal?

When you think your love story is boring. It’s not like in the movies: it’s better.

The Courage to Keep Going. Another benefit of stories. Especially like the third paragraph from the bottom.

A Fleshy Assessment: Ten Questions to Ask Yourself. Convicting.

And a couple of quotes that have inspired me:

Every new duty calls for more grace than I now possess, but not more than is found in Thee, the divine treasury in whom all fullness dwells. To Thee I repair for grace upon grace, until every void made by sin be replenished and I am filled with all Thy fullness. ~Valley of Vision

“If, thinking of your frailty, you hold yourselves cheap, value yourselves by the price that was paid for you.” ~ Augustine

“Sometimes God doesn’t change your situation because He’s trying to change your heart.” Unknown

Have a great weekend!

Friday’s Fave Five

Posted on August 2, 2013 by Barbara Harper

Friday’s Fave Five is hosted by Susanne at Living to Tell the Story, who invites us to share five of our favorite things from the last week. It’s a wonderful exercise in looking for and appreciating the good things God blesses us with. Click on the button to learn more, then go to Susanne’s to read others’ faves and link up your own.

Here are some favorites from the last week or so:

1. Turning calendar pages. I love turning to the fresh, clean pages of a new month.

2. A parking mat.

I had a hard time parking in just the right place in the garage, and this is simple and less obtrusive than other ways to deal with it.

3. Reading 100+ pages in one morning. Jesse got braces this week, and the appointment afforded me time to just sit in the lobby and read. It was kind of a balm (for me, anyway, not for him, poor guy!) to get away from the hecticness of the last couple of weeks and just sit and read.

4. A good aide. I mentioned in yesterday’s update on Grandma that the home health care aide we have working with her Monday through Fridays has been great.

5. A favorable prediction. On the news last night, the weather man said that August was originally predicted to be hotter than normal, but now he is predicting it will be less hot than normal, just like July has been. We’ve had a few very hot days, but nothing like the usual summer heat, and I am delighted that it looks like that trend might continue!

Happy Friday!

Update: Oops! I forgot Susanne was taking a break from the computer! But it’s good to look back over the week and recount it’s blessings anyway.

Update on Grandma

Posted on August 1, 2013 by Barbara Harper

We’ve had Grandma home from the nursing home for about a week now. There has been a flurry of activity as the physical therapist, occupational therapist, speech therapist, and home health nurse have come in to do evaluations, but I think after this week just the physical therapist will be coming 3 times a week. We know she likely won’t get back to walking or feeding herself, but we’re hoping to try to loosen her up a bit from her contracted position. In the nursing home she most often went into a fetal position with her arms pulled up to her chest, and after just a few days at home we noticed her in a more relaxed position with her hands more naturally laying across her stomach or on her lap, even before the physical therapist came, so I think just being in a more home-like atmosphere, seeing us more often, having more one-on-one attention has been doing her good.

She has been eating well. Preparing meals with an eye to what can be pureed well has been interesting. Mostly we can just puree what we’re having, but I have a few canned or frozen things on hand for her for those times when what we’re eating wouldn’t work for pureeing.

We have a home health aide here from 7:30-6:00 right now. Since that is a long day, I thought we might have people coming in two shifts, but so far we’ve had one person Monday through Friday and a different person on the weekend. They’ve both done well, but the M-F person has been great. She and Mom seem to get along well, she does a great job, and even does some of the exercises the therapists have left with us to do. At first it was a little disconcerting to have someone else in the house – usually when that happens, it’s company, and you feel the need to spend time with them, entertain them, etc., so I felt a little guilty doing things in the rest of the house and leaving the aide alone with Mom, but I kept reminding myself that’s why we hired her. I also thought my introvertish self would have trouble with someone else here all the time, and occasionally I feel that way, but overall it hasn’t been bad. We touch base several times a day but I do have some stretches of quiet time, so it works out.

At some point we will probably cut her hours back to something like 7:30 to 1 or 2. Since Mom sleeps a great deal, it doesn’t make a lot of sense to pay someone to sit with her while she’s sleeping. We have to change her position, mainly turning her from one side to the other or on or off her back, every two hours, and I am not sure I could do that by myself yet, but I think I am close. I don’t know about changing her briefs alone yet (adults do not wear “diapers,” I am told. 🙂 ) The aide does it alone but it usually takes both Jim and I to do it at night. Her severe arthritis makes it a challenge to do much with her without causing pain. Mostly she smiles and is patient, but some days she seems in more pain than others.

One blessing before she came was that she needed a Broda wheelchair (it reclines and the footrest can come up) since she can’t sit up straight on her own, but the insurance or Medicare wouldn’t cover it (though they did cover the hospital bed and Hoyer lift). New Broda chair are several thousand dollars, but Jim found a used one in good condition on Craig’s List for a fraction of that. It was in SC, about 3 hours away, but he got up early one day and dashed out to get it and bring it back.

It has been a bit of an adjustment that we can’t just pick up and go like usual. Jim said it is something like when you first bring a baby home, but in this case we can’t pack his mom and take her with us. We do have to figure out how to get her to a doctor tomorrow: she has to have initial visits to get her medications over to his records from the nursing home’s. There is a place that transports patients that can take wheelchairs, but not the Broda chair. Plus we have to be ready an hour before time to leave and may have to wait as late as an hour after the appointment is done, so it is going to be a very long and trying day for someone who is usually only up in a wheelchair a couple of hours at a time. With all the therapists, nurses, etc., who can come to the home of a patient like Mom, it would be nice if there were doctors who could do that, too.

So far we are trading off going to church, even though and aide is here. We figured until we all got used to the situation and each other, that would be best. I think we can ask the agency that sends out the aides to have someone come over during an evening if we want to go out, and we’ll probably do that with a couple of birthday dinner coming up in the next few months, but we don’t want to do that too often.

In the midst of all of this going on, Jesse got partial braces on yesterday and we have an appointment with an oral surgeon today to discuss when he can get all of his wisdom teeth plus two others pulled. I am praying that we can schedule that surgery early enough for him to be healed before school starts at the end of August – preferably even next week, because Jeremy is coming to visit the week after, and we’d all rather not have to spend Jeremy’s vacation time having and recovering from oral surgery, but if it has to overlap we’ll just have to deal with it. (If you feel so inclined, I’d appreciate your prayers for the Lord’s timing in all of this.)

Overall I think we’re all adjusting well. I think she is happier and doing better overall. Jim seems to take things in stride and does the lion’s share of caring for her when he is home. I’ve had one or two “moments” when things seemed overwhelming, but with prayer and time in the Word, God helped me regain perspective and reminded me of His grace sufficient for every need. I think the move has been a positive change in general.

Book Review: The Last Battle

Posted on July 30, 2013 by Barbara Harper

The Last Battle is the last book in the Narnia series by C. S. Lewis. It opens with a false Aslan: a confused donkey coerced to wear a lion skin by a conniving ape, who in turn is being controlled by others. In Aslan’s name, talking beasts are turned into slaves, dryads are dying because their trees are being cut down, Calormenes are overseers. Strange things are afoot, everything seems not quite right to everyone, but Aslan is not a tame lion, after all, so his ways will of course be a little different, and they think they must obey.

King Tirian sees at once that something is wrong, but he sets off rashly without thinking and winds up in trouble, He calls out for help, and Eustace and Jill show up. Together with the few Narnians who don’t believe in the false Aslan, they wage a last battle to save Narnia.

Even though the Narnia series is not an allegory per se, it’s still not hard to see the Biblical allusions to the end times and the antichrist. In Narnia as on Earth, things will get much, much worse before the end comes. And “Aslan’s country” has always typified heaven. All the beasts and creatures and people going “further up and further in” to Aslan’s country, the joyful reunions with those who have gone before, the sense that “this is what I have been seeking and waiting for my whole life” are the best parts of the books to me.

I think this time through the series, that is most what I have carried away with me: that longing, as in the song “Beulah Land”: “I’m kind of homesick for a country where I’ve never been before.” I have to admit that too often I am caught up with the joys and cares of this life. I look forward to having no more sin, sorrow, suffering, and tears some day, but I don’t always carry that personal longing just to be with Christ there, and this series as a whole stirs up that longing for Narnia and Aslan that all who visit experience while they’re away. It calls to mind Biblical texts like Hebrews 11:16: “But now they desire a better country, that is, an heavenly: wherefore God is not ashamed to be called their God: for he hath prepared for them a city,” and Colossians 3:1-2: “If ye then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God. Set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth,” as well as Lewis’s own words from Mere Christianity: , “If I find in myself a desire which no experience in this world can satisfy, the most probable explanation is that I was made for another world…I must [therefore] keep alive in myself the desire for my true country, which I shall not find til after death.”

There is sadness for those who choose not to believe, such as the dwarves who are only for the dwarves and refuse to be “taken in.” As Aslan says, “They will not let us help them. They have chosen cunning instead of belief. Their prison is only in their own minds, yet they are in that prison, and so afraid of being taken in that they cannot be taken out.” Unfortunately there will be people like that as well.

There is a point of confusion with the Calormene Emeth, who served the Calormene god Tash, yet is admitted to Aslan’s country, not because Tash and Aslan are one, as some tried to proclaim (Aslan shook the earth with his growl at the very thought), but because Aslan took to himself everything Emeth had done for Tash. For, he says, “he and I are of such different kinds that no service which is vile can be done to me, and none which is not vile can be done to him. Therefore if any man swear by Tash and keep his oath for the oath’s sake, it is by me that he has truly sworn, though he knew it not, and it is I who reward him. And if any man do a cruelty in my name, then, though he says the name Aslan, it is Tash whom he serves and by Tash his deed is accepted…unless thy desire had been for me thou wouldst not have sought so long and so truly. For all find what they truly seek.” I don’t know how much of this reflects Lewis’s personal belief system, but I can’t endorse the idea that someone sincerely serving and seeking a false God is really serving the one true God unaware.

A couple of my favorite quotes:

“I have come home at last! This is my real country! I belong here. This is the land I have been looking for all my life, though I never knew it til now. The reason why we loved the old Narnia is that it sometimes looked a little like this.”

“Your father and mother and all of you are – as you used to call it in the Shadowlands – dead. The term is over: the holidays have begin. The dream is ended: this is the morning.”

It was only the beginning of the real story. All their life in this world and all their adventures in Narnia had only been the cover and title page: now, at last they were beginning Chapter One of the Great Story which no one on earth has read, which goes on forever.”

I have to thank Carrie for sponsoring the Chronicles of Narnia Reading Challenge, which spurred me on to revisit the series. I’ve so enjoyed being in Narnia again! I also marvel at how someone with an intellect as large and complex as Lewis’s can write something simple enough for children to understand yet engaging to adults, too, with such nobility and depth and beauty.

Here are my posts from the whole series:

The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe
Prince Caspian
Voyage of the Dawn-Treader
The Silver Chair
The Horse and His Boy
The Magician’s Nephew
The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe Graphic Novel.
The Way Into Narnia
Narnian Magic.

(This will also be linked to Semicolon‘s Saturday Review of Books.)

Book Review: The Wedding Dress

Posted on July 29, 2013 by Barbara Harper

The Wedding Dress by Rachel Hauck opens with Charlotte Malone trying to find some solitude to think and pray about her current relationship, but she finds herself at an auction instead, one that she had not realized would be taking place at the location she was visiting. As she tries to depart, her attention is arrested by an old trunk with the lock welded shut. She surprises herself by bidding on it in the first place and then bidding much more than she wanted to, but she ends up winning the bid.

Her fiance is not at all pleased that she spent so much money, but as he later helps her get the trunk open, she finds a wedding dress in it. The dress is supposedly about a hundred years old but looks new and has never been altered. Charlotte is intrigued by the dress and starts to search for the dress’s history. She is also the owner of a contemporary bridal shop and longs to find the perfect bride for this special dress.

The story moves back and forth primarily between Charlotte’s perspective and Emily’s, the first owner of the dress, as we learn more of their situations and relationships. Charlotte doesn’t find out about Emily’s life until much later, but in the process she finds two other wearers of the dress and gets to know them and their history.

It seems the dress only gets passed along to very special brides in unique ways, and each bride in this case had some need, something to learn, some way in which to grow that the dress, or rather the circumstances involving the dress, helped along.

There is a bit of fairly tale-ish supernaturalness (though the book itself is not told in the style of a fairy tale) with a mysterious man in purple who visits at least two of the brides and facilitates their acquiring the dress. Or perhaps he is supposed to be more allegorical: later in the book we’re told what the wedding dress represents (though I find the analogy of what it represents breaks down in light of Charlotte’s having paid a great sum for it, whereas what it represents is free. Although, on the other hand, Charlotte paid for the trunk, not knowing the dress was in it, so I guess the dress was indeed free in a way)…but I can’t say more without spoiling the storyline).

Overall I liked the premise, the journey of each bride, and how the story ended up.

But there were elements that just irritated me or that I found just strange (like a certain scent associated with Charlotte’s coming to Christ and certain encounters afterward). It may just be me – the reviews on Amazon are mostly good. I’ve been wrestling with myself about whether to go into them and decided to do so, but I don’t want to come across as hypercritical or sound like I am just “tearing into” the author. That’s not my tone, but I figure if these bothered me they might bother someone else, too, and that might be helpful for writers to know. 🙂 So here they are:

Sentences like, “The feathery kiss of destiny sent a shiver over her soul as the breeze rushing over the mountaintop tapped her legs.” I don’t even know how to explain why that makes me cringe.

Grown women talking baby talk to each other: “Don’t deny me my one widdle talent.” Shudder. Thankfully I think there is only that one instance.

Charlotte’s talking to the dress. “This is a TV, dress. Have you ever seen TV before?” Really?

Emily’s chastising a potential suitor one minute about his love for baseball (“Imagine, grown men running around all day in the dirt, chasing a small white ball”), then chastising him again when he tells her he has quit the game to be near her (“I can’t believe you’re quitting the game you love. I declare it makes me almost not respect you.”) I suppose that may be there to show her immaturity at that point?

“Mary Grace popped the air with her lightly-fisted hand. A don’t-you-just-know gesture.” I have no idea what a don’t-you-just-know gesture is supposed to look like. Someone popping a fisted hand in the air, I guess.

“The wind raced through the trees. Her thoughts raced through her mind.” OK. I get the picture. But how about something like, “Thoughts raced through her mind as fast as the wind raced through the trees.”

Ms. Hauck has published several successful books, whereas I have published exactly zero, so obviously she knows what she is doing and I am not speaking from the point of an expert. I’m “just your average reader” expressing an opinion. 🙂 Perhaps I was a little more sensitive with this reading, because on the day I started it I had just insisted to Carrie, who doesn’t like Christian fiction, that not all of it is poorly written. 🙂 And I would not say this is poorly written – as I said, there were just these few instances that rubbed me the wrong way.

I went back and forth listening to this book via audiobook and reading the Kindle version – both were on sale at the time for a low price, and the “Whispersync” system between Amazon and Audible allows one to pick up in one version where one left off in the other. That worked quite well. Usually an audiobook enhances a story for me, but I didn’t like this one (sorry to sound so grumpy today! You know I am not usually when talking about books.) The narration wasn’t distinct enough for me to be able to tell who was talking during the dialogues.

But, as I said, I liked the overall story. Many people have posted great reviews and loved the book, and you might, too.

(This will also be linked to Semicolon‘s Saturday Review of Books.)

Laudable Linkage

Posted on July 27, 2013 by Barbara Harper

Here are some thought-provoking reads from the last couple of weeks:

Just Obey. Why grace-focused, gospel-centered churches and individuals don’t need to shy away from the word or the concept.

On Loneliness: A Letter to My Children. Poignant.

Ordinary Christians and a Great Commission. “So many of today’s bestselling Christian books…tell us we ought to live extraordinary lives, crazy and above-and-beyond lives. Some of these authors tacitly (or even blatantly) suggest that ordinary must be synonymous with apathetic and that all these comparative and superlative terms–this-er, that-er–are synonymous with godly. But when I look to the Bible I just don’t see it.”

Embrace Sufferer’s For the Things They Offer You rather than avoiding them in fear.

Faith in Fiction – the need for it, and for current examples of it.

Why Story Warren. “This feeling of –incredibly, out of nowhere– finding an ally in the struggle of our lives, is unforgettable. Even in a tale…How sweet it is when we discover a story, a record, a movie, or a play where our kids are seeing the very best of truth, beauty, and goodness. We see the truth we are longing for them to latch on to neither subverted, nor sanitized to death, but upheld. We feel there is someone on our side. It’s not a minefield; it’s the cavalry!” Just discovered this site yesterday and have had fun poking around. Janet, I think you’d like it.

Why I Don’t Drink.

Fruit of the Spirit Resources for Children’s Ministry, HT to Annette, who created a resource of her own as well. I’ve started studying the fruit of the Spirit in Galatians and want to look into some of these for my own information.

Looking Forward to the Reward. We can feel it is not quite right to serve God with thought of reward, but God tells us about rewards for a reason.

8 Ways to Just Keep Writing.

A Daily Dose of Faith for Writers. Love the opening quote about Jan Karon’s portrayal of Father Tim’s “everyday faith.”

And my book-loving friends will agree with this, HT to Carrie:

Hope you have a great weekend!

Friday’s Fave Five

Posted on July 26, 2013 by Barbara Harper

It seems like I say it has been a busy week every Friday, and so far it has been a busier than usual summer. But this is probably the busiest week so far. Here are some of the highlights:

1. Jason’s birthday celebrations. His birthday was Thursday, we took him and Mittu out to eat at a new-to-us Chinese place Friday and then went to their place for cake and presents, then Saturday Mittu threw him a surprise birthday party with friends at our house. Each event was much fun!

2. A good session with the doctor. I had my yearly physical Monday and was able to discuss some concerns that, for whatever reason, I hadn’t wanted to bring up before, but we were able to have a good discussion and he gave me some practical solutions.

3. A friend indeed. A friend at church who has taken a special interest in Grandma, always greeted her at church, and has visited her on occasion, was asking me about her on Sunday. She hadn’t heard that we were planning to bring her home, and as I was telling her about it and admitted I was struggling a bit with having my peaceful solitude at home “invaded,” I got unexpectedly emotional. She didn’t judge, just hugged and understood and said…I don’t even remember what, but it helped. 🙂

4. A word in due season. Either the morning we were to bring her home or the morning before, I was seriously wrestling with how I’d be able to handle it, and God gave me just exactly what I needed in my morning devotions and gave me a calmness of heart.

5. A smooth transition for Grandma. We moved her home Wednesday, and she seems to be doing well so far. Change, even positive change, can be hard, especially at her age and situation, but she seems happy and peaceful, and she’s very patient with our bumbling attempts at her care. The home health aide has been great with her and we all seem to connect well. The nursing home gave referrals for a physical therapist, a home nurse to visit a couple of days a week (they came yesterday), a speech therapist, and an occupational therapist (still to meet them). I was very glad – otherwise we, or at least I, would have felt set adrift after leaving the nursing home. We have been very pleased with all of them so far. Health care workers who are compassionate, caring, and competent are worth their weight in gold.

I’m understandably behind with reading and commenting on blogs, but I hope to catch up this weekend, when some of the extra therapists and such won’t be here and it will be a fairly regular day – at least as far as I can foresee just now. 🙂

What’s On Your Nightstand: July 2013

Posted on July 23, 2013 by Barbara Harper

The folks at 5 Minutes For Books host What’s On Your Nightstand? the fourth Tuesday of each month in which we can share about the books we have been reading and/or plan to read.

Wow, it’s been another super busy month. Here’s what I’ve been reading and plan to read next.

Since last time I’ve finished:

Through Gates of Splendor, by Elizabeth Elliot, a missionary classic about the lives and deaths of Jim Elliot, Nate Saint, and their three friends who tried to reach a savage tribe in Ecuador, for Carrie’s Reading to Know Book Club for June, reviewed here.

The Hidden Art of Homemaking by Edith Schaeffer along with Cindy at Ordo Amoris who is hosting a read-along book club where we discuss a chapter at a time. My discussions are here.

The Incorrigible Children of Ashton Place, Book II: The Hidden Gallery by Maryrose Wood, reviewed here, another fun one.

The Magician’s Nephew by C. S. Lewis for Carrie‘s Chronicles of Narnia Reading Challenge, reviewed here.

Light From Heaven by Jan Karon, last of the Mitford series, via audiobook. I summed up all the Mitford books here.

I’m currently reading:

The Last Battle by C. S. Lewis for Carrie‘s Chronicles of Narnia Reading Challenge

The Fruitful Wife by Hayley DiMarco.

The Wedding Dress by Rachel Hauck.

Next up:

Invisible by Ginny Yttrup.

On Distant Shores, hot off the press by Sarah Sundin.

Gulp: Adventures on the Alimentary Canal by Mary Roach.

Daniel Deronda, by George Eliot for Carrie’s Reading to Know Book Club for August.

If I should finish those, I have others lined up and just have to decide which to delve into. 🙂

What’s on your nightstand?

The Hidden Art of Homemaking Book Club: Chapter 14; Environment

Posted on July 22, 2013 by Barbara Harper

(Graphics courtesy of Julia Bettencourt)

We’re discussing The Hidden Art of Homemaking by Edith Schaeffer a chapter at a time at The Hidden Art of Homemaking Book Club hosted by Cindy at Ordo Amoris.

The last chapter of the book is “Environment,” and I wasn’t sure what to expect from it at first. Edith had promoted involvement in nature and decried the “plasticness” of her era earlier in the book, so I assumed this chapter would be along those lines. But I suppose that would have been a bit redundant since she had already discussed those things, and I was delighted to find she was referring instead to the environment each of us creates through our personalities, outlook, etc., as well as how we keep and decorate our homes. Perhaps some would understand this better as an aura, though not in the New Age sense of the word.

I marked many long paragraphs in the book that would be too much to reproduce here, so let me see if I can pick out a few of the key thoughts.

We produce an environment other people have to live in. We should be conscious of the fact that this environment which we produce by our very ‘being’ can affect the people who live with us or work with us. The effect on them is something they cannot avoid. We should have thoughtfulness concerning our responsibility in this area. We should be artists in doing something about the environment we are creating – artists before God, of course. We have His help because we are artists in this sense, in the hands of the Holy Spirit; for if we are Christians, He is dwelling in us, and we can ask for His power to help us.

Here in this life, a Christian should be an environment which is helpful to the people with whom he lives. This is not just a matter of dress and tidiness but also of character and spiritual life. It is worth considering what sort of an “art form” we are. What sort of an environment do we drag in with us? How do we affect other people in their attitudes toward that which we are supposed to represent? (p. 212).

“We are either being what the Holy Spirit would have us be, or we are hindering His work in us and through us. As God created the world, He was creating an environment for man which, we are told, was ‘good.’…It was a good environment before sin entered to spoil it. But Christians, who are restored to relationship and fellowship with God, should ask that they might be an environment that is conducive to others wanting to come to God (p. 212).

I am sure that there is no place in the world where your message would not be enhanced by your making the place (whether tiny or large, a hut or a palace) orderly, artistic and beautiful with some form of creativity, some form of ‘art’ (p. 213).

I was just thinking today, not for the first time, that I get frustrated at sentimental prose which seems to indicate that one can either have a clean house or spend quality time with kids, and of course the more godly person chooses time with kids. But does it have to be either/or? Sure, there are times we get too task-oriented and have to remind ourselves that people are more important than to-do lists. But I think one of the best ways to avoid this dichotomy to to integrate fun and family time into work. I appreciate that in the Little House on the Prairie series, and though I’m not a big proponent of Amish culture, I do like that both in the home and the community people pitch in together to work. In that way children learn the satisfaction of seeing a job well done, learning new skills as they grow up, and fellowshipping with others at the same time. My mother-in-law was a great example of this: until she started to decline, she always had a cheerful industriousness about her, and I appreciate that that rubbed off on her youngest son. I’m afraid I let my own negative attitude about work rub off on my children, but on the other hand I think they do have pleasant memories of working on projects with their dad in particular.

One of Edith’s examples in the book is that of roommates and how the slovenly habits of one affect first the mood and then the motivation of the other. As Edith said in some of the quotes above, our “environment” can either lift someone up or drag them down.

It goes without saying, too, that ‘The Environment’, which is you should be an environment which speaks of the wonder of the Creator who made you (p. 213).

I want to thank Cindy for hosting this book club. I gleaned much, much more out of the book by just reading a chapter a week, writing up thoughts about it, seeing what others had to say and pondering sometimes different perspectives or emphases, and then thinking about it all through the week before the next chapter, than I would have just plowing through on my own. I am thinking that this extended working through a non-fiction book is a much better way or retaining what I read.

This has been at least my second time through the book – I may have read it more times than that, but I can’t remember. I’ve enjoyed going back over it once again.

Book Review: The Incorrigible Children of Ashton Place, Book 2: The Hidden Gallery

Posted on July 20, 2013 by Barbara Harper

After I listened to Book 1 in The Incorrigible Children series, The Mysterious Howling (linked to my thoughts), I had to get the audiobook for Book 2: The Hidden Gallery. The children are not called incorrigible because they are disobedient, but their benefactor, Lord Ashton, has given them that name after he found them in the woods, deduced they had been raised by wolves, and brought them home. His wife was less than pleased, but hired a star graduate from Swanburne Academy for Poor Bright Females, Penelope Lumley, age fifteen, to be their governess in the first book. Miss Lumley genuinely cares about the children and has brought them a long way, though they still have some howling inclinations and the tendency to drool at the sight of small birds.

The Hidden Gallery opens with workmen repairing the damage caused by the mayhem in Book 1. The noise and bother causes Lady Ashton to take the whole family to London while the work is being done. Penelope enjoys taking the children to see the sites, but they do have some mishaps, such as when the children mistake the furry hat of a stoic guard at Buckingham Palace for a bear.

The also have an odd encounter with a gypsy soothsayer with a mysterious prognostication and meet a new friend in young Mr. Simon Harley-Dickinson (he of the “perfectly nice young face, waves of brown hair, finely formed features, gleam of genius,” p. 154), and Penelope receives some strange warnings and instructions from her former teacher and mentor, Miss Mortimer.

Some mysteries just hinted at in the first book are expanded upon a bit here, such as the similarity in color between Penelope’s hair and the children’s, Lord Ashton’s somewhat wolfish behavior and absences during full moons, and the mural in the attic whose likeness appears in an art gallery, but we don’t seem to be close to finding answers for them nor the questions of what happened to the children’s parents nor Miss Lumley’s. I don’t know what the long term plans are for this series – I know Book 3 is out and Book 4 is due in December – but I’d rather have a short, really good series than have some of these questions dragged on for 8 or 10 books. But if the rest of the books are as fun as the first two, I don’t suppose people will complain too much, and it will be an enjoyable ride.

There are more pithy sayings from Swanburne Academy for Poor Bright Females’ founder, Agatha Swanburne, sprinkled throughout the book (such as “She who waits for the perfect moment to act will never make a turn at a busy intersection”) and apt descriptions (“If you have ever ridden on a tire swing after turning the rope ’round and ’round until it was twisted from top to bottom, you will have some idea of the wild, spinning, escalating whirl of Lady Contstance’s distress,” p. 5). Author Maryrose Wood also offers some amusing asides of instructions to her younger readers, such as the difference between high dudgeon and dungeon, or the meaning of some French phrases, and then refers back to these throughout the book.

Katherine Kellgren did another wonderful job narrating, and I enjoyed the book so much more by hearing her intonations. I did check the book out of the library as well to refer back to passages I heard in the audiobook.

The only real objectionable element was the soothsayer. She’s not a major character, but she appears three times in the book and speaks of a curse on the children. If I were reading this to children I’d feel the need to expound against soothsaying and fortune-telling.

With that caveat, I can recommend this as another fun, clever, witty, enjoyable book from Maryrose Wood.

(This will also be linked to Semicolon‘s Saturday Review of Books.)