The Booking Through Thursday topic for this week is:Who’s the worst fictional villain you can think of? As in, the one you hate the most, find the most evil, are happiest to see defeated? Not the cardboard, two-dimensional variety, but the most deliciously-written, most entertaining, best villain? Not necessarily the most “evil,” so much as the best-conceived on the part of the author.

One of the best crafted villains that comes to my mind is Javert of Les Miserables because he doesn’t seem like a villain. He thinks he’s on the side of right. He stands for the good causes of righteousness and justice but forgets forgiveness and mercy and compassion. He reminds me somewhat of the apostle Paul who persecutes Christians because he thinks they are sinning against the God he thinks he is serving, yet unlike Paul, who is brought prostrate and converted when he is brought face to face with the truth, Javert can’t face it, can’t comprehend it, and sadly destroys himself.

I was looking on my bookshelf for something easy to get into in anticipation of a long doctor’s appointment (rather a long time in the waiting room). I found a small book called Sweet Dreams Drive by Robin Lee Hatcher there. I don’t remember buying it, but it had a big sale sticker on it and I had at least heard of the author, so that must’ve been part of my motivation, plus the fact that it looked like a good story. I didn’t realize at first it was the fourth in a series called Hart’s Crossing about a folks in a small town in Idaho. It wasn’t originally on my Summer Reading List, though I am adding it on. :)The story is about a couple who had found each other unexpectedly, fallen in love, and went on to pursue the American Dream — and run into problems with debt and a lack of communication and the sleep deprivation and tiredness resulting from the birth of twins. The point of view shifts back and forth between the husband and wife, Al and Patti, but what I liked about that was that we see the same situation from each point of view and see how it causes different reactions. It’s a sweet story of how they learn to sacrifice and put each other first and make their marriage even better than it was before.

Now I want to get the first three books in the series! I don’t think they are needed to really understand this story, but I liked the town the characters and want to read about the rest of them.

The second book is a prize that I won in Katrina’s Books Galore give-away last spring (thanks. Katrina!), Scrap Everything by Leslie Gould. The basic premise is the friendship that develops between two unlikely women. Elise has moved to her husband’s home town as a temporary stop on her way to her dream location of Seattle. Partly because she doesn’t really want to live in the town and partly because she considers it a short stay and doesn’t want to put down roots and partly because of her personality, which is somewhat reticent to get to know people, she seems aloof (another character later described her as “needy,” but I didn’t see her as needy at all: she seemed just the opposite to me. She didn’t want or think she needed their friendship or their help at all at first). One of the first women she meets is Rebekah, a new owner of a scrapbooking shop, whom Elise thinks is “perky” and describes as someone who “spoke in italics and exclamation points.”

Elise’s husband, Ted, is unexpectedly called back from army reserves to active duty and her oldest son has behavioral problems. Rebekah’s adopted daughter faces a medical crisis with a need for a kidney transplant, and the family seems about to lose either their farm or Rebekah’s business due to the expenses, especially when a laspe in insurance coverage is discovered. As they meet over scrapbooking, horseback riding at Rebekah’s farm, and helping each other through their problems, they learn to give each other a chance, they learn to give, and they learn to give up control to the only One who can control the events in their lives.

Even though the title and a lot of the setting pertains to scrapbooking, a reader wouldn’t need to be a scrapbooker to enjoy the book.

I found the physical transitions a little choppy and unclear in places. For instance, in the sixth chapter, Rebekah and her husband, Patrick, are in their kitchen talking. He has just gotten a glass of water when their conversation takes an unpleasant turn, and Rebekah says, “I’m too tired for this. Good night.” and turns off the kitchen light. It sounded (to me, anyway) like she left him standing in the kitchen in the dark. Maybe she did. But I think it was meant to convey they were done in the kitchen and going on to bed. There were a few “Huh?” moments like that throughout the book, but I don’t feel they marred the major part of the story.

I identified most with Elise; I could understand her feelings and reactions throughout the book. Maybe because of that, I felt some of the others were too hard on her later on in the book. I empathized with her mapping out her ideal plan and getting frustrated because God wasn’t allowing things to work out accordingly, then having to yield that plan to Him. And Rebekah, though a go-getter and ones who makes things happen, had to learn there are things out of her control as well that she just has to trust God for.

Overall I would recommend this book, and I’d like to read Leslie’s other two books as well some time.

I won a book from Deena at A Peek At My Bookshelf and volunteered to review a couple of other books, and wanted to start right away on the new book just out by Kay Washer, so I may have to scrap my Summer Reading List before it’s over. 🙂 But that’s fine — I do want to read all those books, whether I get to them this summer or next fall. We’ll see how it goes. I have plenty of to-be-read books stacked up to keep me happy for a long time. 🙂

The Booking Through Thursday topic for this week is:

1. Okay, love him or loathe him, you’d have to live under a rock not to know that J.K. Rowling’s final Harry Potter book, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, comes out on Saturday… Are you going to read it?
2. If so, right away? Or just, you know, eventually, when you get around to it? Are you attending any of the midnight parties?
3. If you’re not going to read it, why not?
4. And, for the record… what do you think? Will Harry survive the series? What are you most looking forward to?

At first I wasn’t going to participate in BTT this week because I’m one of the few people on the planet not into HP. But I just finished writing a lot of my thoughts in a comment on Cindy’s Notes In the Key of Life, so I thought I may as well post them here also.

The short answer is no, I haven’t read the books or seen the films. The “why” will take a little longer to explain.

As a Christian trying to order my life by the Word of God, I have a problem with stories about witchcraft and the occult. One of the most notable passages is Deuteronomy 18:10-12:

“There shall not be found among you any one that maketh his son or his daughter to pass through the fire, or that useth divination, or an observer of times, or an enchanter, or a witch, or a charmer, or a consulter with familiar spirits, or a wizard, or a necromancer. For all that do these things are an abomination unto the LORD: and because of these abominations the LORD thy God doth drive them out from before thee.”

When we were watching the Lord of the Rings series, I found there are, of course, wizards in it. I did wrestle with that in my own conscience. Finally I concluded that Gandalf and the others are not wizards in the occultish sense of the word. They’re more like Middle Earth super heroes, a la Superman and Spiderman and Batman. It’s more fantasy than real occult — we don’t see witches and wizards or people in the occult world in real life riding on bird’s backs or powering off against each other with wands or staffs.

I thought also of the witch in The Wizard of Oz. She is a “fairy tale” witch — witches in real life aren’t green and don’t have flying monkeys. Really the implications of there being such a thing as a “good witch” in Glenda bothers me more than the Wicked Witch of the West. But in the story she’s more like Cinderella’s fairy godmother.

So in our family we’ve made a distinction between fairly tale type magic and the real occult. And even the fairy tale magic I’d rather have as little of as possible.

On the other hand, I have (rarely and not on purpose) read books and watched films that had a much darker and more dangerous pull and more palpable real evil even though there were no outwardly occult signs or symbols or people.

That said, we haven’t gotten into HP at all. He may be more the “fairy tale” type of wizard rather than really occultish — I don’t know. If any of my kids were interested in the series, I would have to check into it. But they are not at all interested. And though part of me wants to check them out just to see what they are all about and to speak of them intelligently when they come up in a conversation, my TBR pile is massive already and I don’t need another obsession.

The Booking Through Thursday question for this week is:

1. In your opinion, what is the best translation of a book to a movie?
2. The worst?
3. Had you read the book before seeing the movie, and did that make a difference? (Personally, all other things being equal, I usually prefer whichever I was introduced to first.)

And, by all means, expand this to as long a list as you like. I’m notoriously awful myself at narrowing down to one favorite ANYTHING. So, feel free to list as many “good” or “bad” movie-from-books as you like. (Heaven knows that’s what I’ll be doing….)

One of the best was Jane Austen’s Persuasion. I had seen the film before reading the book, but the film made me want to read the book, and I was delighted to find the film kept very closely to the book. I liked the film version of Sense and Sensibility much better than the book.

I loved the first Anne of Green Gables film, and I felt it was very close to the book. That film also inspried me to read the whole series of Anne books plus several other things L. M. Montgomery has written. The second film, Anne of Avonlea, strayed from the book but was still pretty good. The third, Anne of Green Gables, The Continuing Story, was a total disappointment. By this time I had read all the books and I thought the one about Anne’s first year of marriage was so sweet, and I hoped they would make a film of it. I know a film can’t capture every detail of a book, and there are some scenes of narration that might need to be acted out somehow, etc. — but when you basically just use the characters and the setting and then write your own story, that’s fanfic, not an adaptation. I get all frustrated and stirred up every time I think of this film too much, so let’s move on..

I thought the whole Lord of the Rings series was excellent. I had seen the first film without reading the book, and read the book afterward. Then with the second film I read the book first. Reading the book first enhances the understanding of what’s going on in the film, but it takes the edge off the anticipation of wondering what’s next. I tended to think more in terms of “how are they going to film this?” rather than what was coming next in the story. But seeing the film first made some of the book seem dull — I kept wanting to get to the scenes I had seen in the film. I did see the third film but haven’t read the book yet.

Les Miserables is a play or musical rather than a film, but I saw it on a video of the 10th anniversary of it. In that video it wasn’t acted out, but the characters were in costume and sang most of the songs. I had checked it out from the library when I saw it there on the shelves and decided to see what all the fuss was about. I fell in love with the gorgeous music and the story. But when I looked up the whole set of lyrics, there were some very vulgar places that made it so that I don’t think I could ever see the play in good conscience. I did read the book and loved it and want to read it again some time. It’s a wonderful story of love and redemption. I’m told it is hard to find a copy of the whole original book because there were long tedious parts in it about industrialization, etc., but the two abridged versions I read were wonderful and contained no vulgarity at all, even when dealing with Fantine’s profession. I did later see a film adaptation with Liam Neeson and Geoffrey Rush that I thought was truly awful.

I loved Little Women with Susan Sarandon and Winona Ryder. I saw a couple of older versions but I don’t remember much about them.

I thought the book The End of the Spear was much better than the film.

Probably several more examples are going to come to mind all through the day. 🙂

I’ve written here before about Sharon Hinck‘s books, The Secret Life of Becky Miller and Renovating Becky Miller, and how they spoke to my heart. So when I first knew that she was writing another book, The Restorer, I knew it was a must-read.

It’s a different genre than the Becky Miller books — in a way. I suppose you could call all three “mom-lit,” though I am sure they would appeal to others as well. The heroine of all three books is an ordinary mom dealing with life and faith. But Susan Mitchell of The Restorer is pulled into an alternate reality or parallel universe, so this book is more of a fantasy.

One of the things I like best about it is that at first it doesn’t feel like a fantasy. It feels very real, especially when Susan first finds herself in a very different place from home. The confusion and rationalization she experiences are, I think, exactly what anyone would go through if they really did find themselves in her situation.

Susan finds herself in a reluctant leadership role designed to draw people back to “the Verses” which tell of “the One.” She struggles with whether she can handle it and how she’s supposed to handle it since she is unlike previous Restorers. There are some wonderful unexpected twists, spots of humor, and most of all truths about reliance on the One. I don’t want to tell too much about the story because I think readers will enjoy the discovery along the way, and I don’t want to take away from that. It’s very loosely based on Deborah’s story in the book of Judges.

To me the best of Christian fiction has a good story, a sense of humor, an interesting plot, characters and conflicts that seem genuine, and it conveys Biblical truth something like an extended parable, speaking simply to the heart without browbeating. And I believe Sharon Hinck is among the best of Christian fiction writers.

Let me know if you read this book and what you think.

I forgot to mention in all of spring’s busy-ness that I won a book in one of Katrina’s Books-Galore give-aways! I received not just a copy, but an autographed copy of Scrap Everything by Leslie Gould. Thank you Katrina and Leslie! Leslie is a new author to me, and I am looking forward to exploring this book!

These are the other books I hope to read this summer:

The Ultimate Weight Solution by Dr. Phil McGraw. I started it for the Spring Reading Thing but haven’t finished. It’s good — I just have to labor more with non-fiction.

The Princess Bride by William Goldman. This was also on my spring list, but I just didn’t get to it. I had to order it because neither the library nor the bookstore had it.

True Light by Terri Blackstock. This just came out in early June. It’s the third in a series.

The Restorer by Sharon Hinck. In progress, loving it!

Cassidy by Lori Wick. Lori, Terri, and Sharon are all authors whose books I eagerly anticipate before they hit the shelves and usually get them as soon as I can.

The Potluck Club Takes the Cake by Linda Evans Shepherd and Eva Marie Everson. I first picked this up when it caught my eye on the shelf in my Christian bookstore. I wondered about it at first — Christian characters should be flawed, because real Christians are, but these ladies FLAWED! It was neat to see how they all grew in their faith through the series. A different touch in this series is that every chapter is written from the point of view of one of the characters.

Summer by Karen Kingsbury, next to the last, I think, of the Baxter family series, coming out later this summer.

Only two other non-fiction titles, though I have many stacked up on my shelves: Spirit of the Rainforest: A Yanomamo Shaman’s Story by Mark Ritchie, recommended by Jungle Mom, and In the Best Possible Light by Beneth Peters Jones, about Biblical femininity. I’ve been thinking a lot about this topic for a long time and am looking forward to what she has to say.

Added: Sweet Dreams Drive by Robin Lee Hatcher.

One Candle To Burn by Kay Washer

If I finish all those, I have a TBR list compiled from recommendations I’ve seen here and there. 🙂

Continuing on a weekly (for the first one) or daily basis:

Queen of the Castle: 52 Weeks of Encouragement for the Uninspired, Domestically Challenged or Just Plain Tired Homemaker by Lynn Bowen Walker.

Daily Light on the Daily Path compiled by the Samuel Bagster family.

Wonderful Words by Stewart Custer.

And, of course, the Bible, best book ever. I’m currently in Esther, reading straight through: Job is next.

(Graphic courtesy of Anne’s Place)

The Booking Through Thursday question for this week is:

Since school is out for the summer (in most places, at least), here’s a school-themed question for the week:

1. Do you have any old school books? Did you keep yours from college? Old textbooks from garage sales? Old workbooks from classes gone by?
2. How about your old notes, exams, papers? Do you save them? Or have they long since gone to the great Locker-in-the-sky?

I don’t have any text books from elementary or high school — those all had to be turned back in to the school. Workbooks, notes — I don’t know if I have any from that time. If I do, they’d be in boxes of papers in the shed that I need to go through.

I do have several texts from college days: probably all of the ones from my Bible courses, several from my home economics courses: nutrition, meal management, child care, and sewing books. I also kept the textbook from History of Civilization (the first history class I liked, largely due to the teacher, and the last one in my curriculum), from my English and American Literature classes, from my Advanced Composition and Rhetoric class (that course title scared me, but it was just a basic writing class) and my trusty Harbrace College Handbook from freshman English which was a quick reference guide to basic rules of English. I also kept notes from several of those classes (and actually do have them in a filing cabinet by subject rather than in a box!) One special project I kept was a study of what the Bible had to say about raising children. I did keep several research papers I wrote as well.

Now — have I looked at any of that since school days would be a different question. 🙂 Actually, I have looked at many of the textbooks for reference. Some of them are outdated now and much of the information can be found online, but some I would keep because I know where to find what I am looking for easily. Others I keep for sentimental reasons. Probably through the years to come some of them will be gleaned out as I make room for more books (unless I want to start a library….)