Katrina at Callapidder Days is hosting another reading challenge: the Spring Reading Thing. 🙂 The idea is to set a goal for yourself of the books you want to read this spring between March 21 and June 21 (the first and last days of spring). There’s no pressure — if you don’t finish your list, fine; if you want to take a book off or add one, that’s fine, too. I found when we did this last fall that the challenge provided more purpose to my reading and helped me actually read some books I had in mind to get to “some day” rather than just randomly grabbing something off the Christian bookstore shelf.

If you’d like to join the challenge, you can post what books you are planning to read link to Katrina’s, and then place the url of your post in the Mr. Linky there so others can see what you’re reading. And there are prizes involved! Click on the picture to get more information at Katrina’s site and to sign up.

Whether you join the challenge or not, you can also go there just to see what other people are reading — but have something handy to jot down the interesting books that you’ll find that you might want to read, too!

Here is my list: a little on the light side as spring is a busy season for us, but I may add more if I complete these:

Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen. I am in the middle of this from my winter reading list — didn’t get it finished yet.

Persuasion by Jane Austen. I’m continuing to make my way through Jane Austen’s books. I loved the film of this.

A Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Betty Smith. I first heard of this on a Bugs Bunny cartoon years ago. For some reason Bugs was reading it as he walked off into the sunset. 🙂 Then a few years ago I saw an old black and white movie of it on TV. My heart went out to the little girl whose father was an alcoholic because mine was, too, and I’ve wanted to read this ever since.

The Princess Bride by William Goldman. Loved the movie but hadn’t realized it came from a book. I almost always love books better than the movies made from them, so if that holds true here, I should really love this one. I’ll let you know.

Renovating Becky Miller by Sharon Hinck. I had read her first book, The Secret Life of Becky Miller, last year and loved it. It was the first book I wrote about on my blog. I’m excited to see what Becky’s up to now.

Forever by Karen Kingsbury. I think this is the last of the Firstborn series.

The Ultimate Weight Solution by Dr. Phil McGraw. I am not a Dr. Phil fan — I’m not against him either, really — I haven’t watched or read him enough to go either way. But as I have looked around the web at different weight loss plans, what he had to say contained a lot of common sense, so I wanted to give this book a try.

To Fly Again by Gracia Burnham. I read her book In the Presence of My Enemies, about the year she and her husband spent in captivity, during last fall’s reading challenge.

Finding Your Path by Mitch Raymer, which is described as “Christ-Centered Tools To Help You Get A Job, Find Joy In Your Work And Achieve Success.” I met Mitch and his wife, DK, through the Thursday Thirteen meme and I was impressed with Mitch’s Christ-centered and common sense quotations and principles. On one TT he offered his book to the first thirteen people who signed up for it, and I was one. 🙂 I wanted it mainly for my son who is graduated from college and deciding on the next step in life. All Mitch asked for in return was an e-mail telling what we thought, and I am ashamed to say I haven’t done that yet. Sorry, Mitch! I had given it to my son, but I will sneak it off his desk and read it and get back to you.

True Light by Terri Blackstock. This one isn’t due to be released until June 15, but I might squeak it in. 🙂 It’s the third in the Restoration series in which there what appears to be a sudden global loss of power. The books focus mainly on one family’s coping with the crisis. I didn’t think I would like the storyline, but I do like Terri Blackstock, so I gave it a chance. The hard thing about it is my aversion to thinking about such a crisis — I’m afraid I like my creature comforts too much — I can see my response mirrored in that of some of the characters.

From Cannibalism to Christianity by Margaret Stringer. Margaret is a missionary our church supports, “retired” from the field but still plenty active.

I put these all on a list near the bottom of my side bar and will crossing them off there as I go complete them.

I have an ongoing list of “books I want to read” (which I am sure I will add to as I read others’ lists) from which I can choose more books to read if I get through all of these.

These are books that I will be reading through the year, as they are laid out in weekly or daily sections:

Queen of the Castle: 52 Weeks of Encouragement for the Uninspired, Domestically Challenged or Just Plain Tired Homemaker by Lynn Bowen Walker. I am enjoying this a lot so far — I had seen it recommended on a couple of blogs during the fall challenge last year. Just to give you some advance notice, I’ll be having a Q&A session with the author, Lynn Bowen Walker, here May 2.

Daily Light on the Daily Path compiled by the Samuel Bagster family. I have read this many years over — always a blessing.

Wonderful Words by Stewart Custer. “OK” so far.

And, of course, the Bible, best book ever.

I just finished Jane Eyre a week or two ago, but hadn’t had a chance to comment on it yet.

It was one of those classics I meant to get to “some time,” but my interest was peaked when I saw the Masterpiece Theater production of it which aired on PBS in January. It showed a lot of humorous exchanges between Mr. Rochester and Jane. I was surprised — I had thought Mr. Rochester was a moody, brooding sort of fellow. I had never read the book, but I had some dim memory of the story line (which I later remembered came from seeing an old film with a young Elizabeth Taylor as Helen, Jane’s friend at the orphanage) even before seeing a version with Ciaran Hinds as Mr. Rochester several years ago. I had really enjoyed that version, but with so many differences between that production and this new one, and those intriguing humorous exchanges in this newer production, that I put Jane Eyre on my winter reading list.

For those who don’t know (warning: if you have never read or seen Jane Eyre and don’t want any “spoilers,” you’d better skip this paragraph), Jane’s parents die when she is a young girl and she is sent to live with an uncle. The uncle then also passes away while she is still young and makes his wife promise, when he is on his death bed, that she will take care of Jane. His wife does not like Jane, makes her feel an obvious outsider from the rest of the family, and “takes care of her” only in the sense of providing food, clothing,, and a place to stay. Things come to a head there (I’ll leave some surprises) and Jane is sent to a boarding school with a strict, tyrannical headmaster. When she grows older she becomes a teacher at the school until she advertises for an outside position. She’s hired to be a governess by a Mrs. Fairfax for a young French girl named Adele. Jane later learns that Adele is the ward of an enigmatic Mr. Rochester. Jane is poor and is not beautiful and tends to speak her mind, all of which sets her outside the upper social circles of the time. But somehow Mr. Rochester, who is also said to be not handsome, likes the way she answers him, and they begin to have many conversations, which lead to Jane having a “crush” on her employer. She knows it is an impossible situation because of their different stations in life, which seems further confirmed by his seeming impending engagement to Blanche Ingram, a wealthy socialite, but sometimes she thinks she sees interest on his part as well. She does nothing to further his interest — she is not the type to flirt and would not in her circumstances anyway. Yet the undercurrent of interest does blossom into a romance: they are to be married until it is revealed that Mr. Rochester has a dark secret (I’ll leave that secret, too, for those who haven’t read it). Jane flees and eventually finds the Rivers family, a brother and two sisters, who take her in. St. John Rivers is single and headed for the mission field and eventually becomes convinced that Jane would make an excellent wife for him on the field, not because he loves her, but because of her temperament and work ethic. She almost does, but has a strong urging to see Mr. Rochester again.

I haven’t read much about the background of the Brontes or the reception of this book when it was published. I do wonder if Mr. Rochester’s scandalous past  caused a stir — let me hasten to say, though, that there are no explicit scenes in the book. His past is mentioned and explained a bit, but we’re spared the intricate details (thankfully — a tale like this in the hands of a modern author would likely be one I couldn’t read). I also wonder what the 1840s audience thought of Jane’s outspokenness and independence: if it was accepted, I wonder if it was because of Jane’s circumstances and if it would not have been accepted if she had come from a upper-class well-established family.

I don’t know whether Charlotte Bronte was a Christian:  I know she was in the world’s sense of the word, as meaning not-Buddhist or something else, but I don’t know if she was in the born-again sense. I did read somewhere that she was a minister’s daughter. But I was pleased to find many Biblical allusions and principles throughout the book, even the need for repentance and Jane’s telling Mr. Rochester he needed to find rest for his soul in the Lord. I didn’t read any reviews or commentaries of this book except just to skim some when I was looking for a short summary (I had planned to link to one instead of writing my own, but could only find longer ones), but one reviewer mentioned Jane’s aversion to religion. I didn’t find that at all in the book, unless the reviewer meant the type of religion modeled by Mr. Brocklehurst, the headmaster. There was one passage in particular that I thought was an excellent illustration of having principles in place ahead of time to avoid temptation when you can’t think clearly. Here Jane has learned Mr. Rochester’s secret and determined she must leave: he argues with her to stay, on terms that she knows she cannot yield to. She thinks to herself:

…while he spoke my very conscience and reason turned traitors against me, and charged me with crime in resisting him. They spoke almost as loud as Feeling: and that clamoured wildly. “Oh, comply!” it said. “Think of his misery, think of his danger– look at his state when left alone; remember his headlong nature; consider the recklessness following on despair — soothe him; save him; love him; tell him you love him and will be his. Who in the world cares for you? or who will be injured by what you do?”

Still indomitable was the reply — “I care for myself. The more solitary, the more friendless, the more unsustained I am, the more I will respect myself. I will keep the law given by God, sanctioned by man. I will hold to the principles received by me when I was sane, and not mad — as I am now. Laws and principles are not for the times when there is no temptation: they are for such moments as this, when body and soul rise in mutiny against their rigor: stringent are they; inviolate they shall be. If at my individual convenience I might break them, what would be their worth? They have a worth — so I have always believed; and if I cannot believe it now, it is because I am insane — quite insane: with my veins running fire, and my heart beating faster than I can count its throbs. Preconceived opinions, foregone determinations, are all I have at this hour to stand by: there I plant my foot.”

And yes, there were many humorous interchanges between Jane and Mr. Rochester. I was glad to see the book wasn’t all darkness and brooding.  Here is one, in one of the first couple of meetings between Jane and Mr. Rochester. He is looking at some of her drawings and says,

“I perceive these pictures were done by one hand: was that hand yours?”

“Yes.”

“And when did you find time to do them? They have taken much time, and some thought.”

“I did them in the last two vacations I spent at Lowood, when I had no other occupation.”

“Where did you get your copies.”

“Out of my head.”

“That head I now see on your shoulders?”

“Yes, sir.”

“Has it other furniture of the same kind within?”

All in all I did like the book very much. The recent PBS production is much truer to the book, but there are a few moments that I didn’t appreciate — a couple of cases of double entendre and an attempt to explain some things with the darker side of the supernatural that were not in the book (I’m being purposefully vague there so as not to draw the attention of search engines here by those terms.)

One last quote I especially liked had to do with Jane’s and Mr. Rochester’s relationship:

 To be together is for us to be at once as free as solitude, as gay as in company. We talk, I believe, all day long: to talk to each other is but a more animated and an audible thinking.

Katrina at Callapidder Days is hosting a Spring Reading Challenge from March 21 (first day of spring) to June 21, similar to the Fall Reading Challenge we did last fall. The details are here. I so enjoyed the fall challenge that I did my own winter reading list. I hope to have it finished by the spring challenge — if not, I’ll just roll the ones I haven’t finished onto the new list. 😀 That’s the nice things about this: there’s no pressure. It’s just a goal to aim at. I don’t think I read more with the challenge, because I am always reading anyway, but I found it was a good way to get some of those books I kept meaning to get to “some day” actually checked out of the library and read.

Updated: I decided to remove the book meme. The more I thought about it, the more uncomfortable I was with having some of those selections listed here.

I began a winter reading list in early January after the manner of the Fall Reading Challenge many of us did. I’ve had it in my sidebar but wanted to post it here so I could refer back to it as I completed books and commented on them. As I perused everyone’s lists from the challenge in the fall, I made a list of other books I want to read, so I have plenty of ideas if I get through these! 🙂

Mere Christianity by C. S. Lewis (In progress)

White Chocolate Moments by Lori Wick (Completed)

Ever After by Karen Kingsbury (Completed)

Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte (In progress)

Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen

The Reptile Room (A Series of Unfortunate Events, Book 2) by Lemony Snicket

Through the year (These are laid out in weekly or daily sections):

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.

I finished White Chocolate Moments by Lori Wick first. Reading Lori Wick feels like visiting an old friend to me. I think I have read all of her books and really enjoy them. I wouldn’t agree necessarily with every little point, but, then, that’s true of anyone I suppose. She has written many historical novels and a few contemporary ones: this is one of the latter. I thought the name of the main character, Arcineh, was kind of odd, and there was no explanation as to how her parents came up with that name. Her nickname is Arci, and throughout the book people hear it and mistake it for Darcy — that gets a little tedious sometimes. Arcineh’s parents are killed in a car accident when she is about 11, and she goes to live with her grandfather. Though they get along wonderfully, his “favorite” granddaughter has been Arcineh’s cousin, and that causes conflict later on. Arcineh is very non-competitive (I am, too, and it was interesting reading about someone else like that), and when things come to a crisis, she leaves. The rest of the books follows her journey to acceptance, to love, and to faith.

I also finished Karen Kingsbury’s book Ever After, just yesterday. It is a sequel to Even Now, which told the story of a young couple who were separated by their parents when the girl, Lauren, becomes pregnant. After Lauren gives birth her baby daughter, Emily, becomes ill, and through a series of misunderstandings, Lauren believes she is dead. She leaves and is estranged from her family and can’t find her boyfriend, Shane. She goes to college, becomes very liberal in her views, and eventually becomes a reporter for Time magazine on the front lines in Afghanistan, opposed to war. Shane, meanwhile, becomes a career soldier. Emily grows up, eventually finds her parents, and tries to reunite them. In this sequel, Shane and Lauren love each other as much as ever, but their differences are so great that they are not sure if they can make it. Emily goes to college, begins a job, and meets a young man, also a soldier, due for a second tour in Iraq. I’ll leave it there so as not to spoil it for anyone else who might like to read it. In many ways it is a predictable plot (to me, anyway), and Karen Kingsbury tends to overplay the emotional scenes, and I don’t think anyone opposed to the war in Iraq would be swayed by reading this. But she does make some very good points about the war effort, and this tribute to those who defend freedom is heartfelt. So even with those negatives, yes, I’d recommend the book.

I’m almost done with Mere Christianity. It is actually very easy to read, but I don’t normally gravitate toward non-fiction. I do want to comment more on it when I finish, but I would recommend it.

Katrina at Callapidder Days has hosted a Fall Into Reading challenge which ends today, Dec 21. She asks us a few questions, which I’ll answer, and then I’ll post just a short comment or review about the books I have read for this challenge.

The best book you read this Fall:

Without a doubt, In the Presence of My Enemies by Gracia Burnham. I wrote about my impressions here.

The book you could have lived without:

The Bachelor’s Bargain by Catherine Palmer. I have enjoyed most of her books. I don’t really like romance-just-for-romance books, but I like good stories that have a romance in them. This seemed more like the former with way too much time spent with “will-they-or-won’t-they” consummate their marriage of convenience. It was “ok” — and the characters did learn good things along the way. But I could have lived without it.

Whether or not you read more than you would have without the challenge:

That’s hard to say, because I do read often, but I think I did read more. There were evenings I was going to turn on the TV to wind down and instead got out a book on my list. I know I did read things I would not have if I hadn’t put them on my list.

The best thing about joining in the challenge:

Finally getting to some those those books I have always wanted to get to “some day.”

If you discovered (and enjoyed) a new book or author after reading someone else’s list:

I did notice several unfamiliar author’s names cropping up on other people’s lists, but I failed to make a note of them when this started (maybe because I already had my list made). But when I read everyone else’s wrap-up posts, I am going to make a list as I go!!

Any other insights, enjoyments, thoughts, or impressions!

I think I will add those as I go with the reviews.

The books on my original list:

General fiction:

Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen. I am so glad I finally read this, and want to put other Austen books on my list.

A Series of Unfortunate Events by Lemony Snicket. I had known there were several books in the series, but not that there were thirteen!! They go pretty quickly though, and are fun reading. I only read the first one but want to finish the series.

Christian fiction:

Before I Wake by Dee Henderson. Dee does know how to write can’t-put-’em-down page-turners!

The Brethren by Beverly Lewis. This is the conclusion to the “Annie’s People” series, and, as always with Beverly’s books, very good.

Family by Karen Kingsbury. Family is the fourth in the “Firstborn” series, which is a spinoff of the “Redemption” series. Karen Kingsbury is probably not the best writer in the technical sense, and I think she overplays sometimes the emotional aspects of a story, but she does know how to write a good story and likeable characters and draw you in to the story.

Winter Birds by Jamie Langston Turner. Mrs. Turner is in some ways the opposite of Karen Kingbury in the sense that she is a great writer in a technical, literary sense, but the story doesn’t really just grab me and draw me in. I do like where the characters end up and what they learn. Her books are more subtle and have more depth (I probably shouldn’t compare the two authors, but I did read these right after each other). I’d love to discuss these impressions with someone else who has read her books.

Bible study:

That I May Know Him by June Kimmel. This was a good Bible study: I enjoyed it.

A Look Within by Faith Alvis Taylor. This was great: I greatly benefited from it and want to suggest it for our ladies’ Bible study.

Non-fiction:

For Women Only, What You Need To Know About The Inner Lives Of Men by Shaunti Feldhahn. I really had ambivalent feelings about this one. I told my son I was reading this book, and he said, “What does a woman know about the secret lives of men?” Well, she did a survey to research a character for a book, and was so intrigued that that led to a more detailed survey. Most of the information wasn’t new to me. I kept getting frustrated, though, and had to remind myself that it wasn’t meant to be a balance between men’s and women’s needs (there is another separate book about women). The author seemed to lay a man’s well-being and spiritual success on his wife, but I don’t think she really meant to. If I can turn this around, one of a woman’s needs (at least that you read in the books) is security, and a wise husband takes that into account. But a wife has to realize that her ultimate security is in the Lord, and when the circumstances seem most insecure –unstable job situations, etc. — rest on Him and not fall apart, blame her husband, etc. The same is true of a man’s needs. No one person can ever meet all of our needs: only the Lord can do that. And I think the author would agree though she did seem to place great weight on a wife’s meeting her husband’s needs. I haven’t read the companion book about women, but as I skimmed over the contents, I thought, yes, it would be helpful if men understood these things about women. So if I took this book the same way and kept it in perspective that it was just an explanation of how men think and what is important to them, then it was ok.

Mere Christianity by C. S. Lewis. This is the only book I didn’t finish, I regret to say. I should have and could have if I had read it before adding on the others: I just tend to gravitate toward fiction. 🙂 But I am determined to finish it now. I was actually kind of bored with the first few chapters, because I felt like I already knew what he was explaining, until I remembered Lewis’s background: he was an atheist before becoming a Christian, and he starts off by the logical evidences and conclusions for believing in God. We know “faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God” (Romans 10:17) rather than logic, but sometimes these types of discussions and apologetics can help remove some of the weeds that would choke off the seed of the Word (Matthew 13:1-23). I am only a few chapters into the book.

In the Presence of My Enemies by Gracia Burnham, mentioned above, reviewed more fully here.

Added to my original list:

A Spouse in the House by Richard Armour. I had discovered one of his poems in another book and was so taken I searched for others, and found a great wealth of them on a variety of topics at amazon.com. Most, if not all, are out of print and can be bought used for under $5. I commented on this one here.

Leaves of Hope by Catherine Palmer. A young woman named Beth with an adventurous spirit is daughter to a very safe, predictable mother who doesn’t like change. Then Beth unexpectedly finds out she is adopted. I’ll let you discover the rest of the plot. 🙂 Overall a good book: I enjoyed it. I did disagree with some of Beth’s ideas that one had to be more like her personality to be Christlike — God had many servants who “stay by the stuff.”

The Bachelor’s Bargain by Catherine Palmer, mentioned above.

A Woman’s Place by Lynn Austen. I liked the historical aspects of this story of four women working in the same ship factory during WWII, and I am sure many of the types of discussions in the book about “a woman’s place” really did take place (and still do!) But I felt that the author overall painted “housewives” in a very demeaning light, so that was a big disappointment. I wrote more about that here.

A Victorian Christmas Tea by Catherine Palmer and others. Just finished this one. It wasn’t what you usually find in novels with “Victorian” in the title. It contains four novellas of different people in different circumstances. I enjoyed it.

Katrina has said that she probably won’t sponsor a winter challenge but might do one for spring. I think, after the holidays, I will make a winter reading list for myself. Those cold winter nights are some of the best for reading. 🙂 I want to continue on in Jane Austen’s books, the Lemony Snicket series, whatever my favorite authors come up with in the next few months, and any interesting books I see on other people’s lists.