From the Stacks - Challenge Completed!

Yeah! I completed my first challenge of 2009 - the From the Stacks Challenge that was being hosted! Of course this one started back in November, but was ending at the end of the month. My finished list did not resemble my actual completed list, but I got some of those TBRs out of my pile! For the challenge I read the following books:

Assaulted by Joy - Stephen Simpson
In the Shadow of Lions - Ginger Garrett
Drinkwater - Eric Hopkins
The Road - Cormac McCarthy
Walking with Wolf - Kay Chornook & Wolf Guindon

It feels good to have completed a challenge! Out of the 5 books The Road was probably my favorite, followed closely by Assaulted by Joy. My least favorite was Drinkwater.

The Road by Cormac McCarthy (Book Review)

Title: The Road

Author: Cormac McCarthy

Publisher: Knopf

Genre: Robinsonades/Fiction

First sentence: When he woke in the woods, in the dark and the cold of the night, he'd reach out to touch the child sleeping beside him.

I listened to this book on audio tape and fell in love with the narrator's voice, Tom Stechschulte. The book was so good, that about 1/2 way through, I checked out the written version from the library so I could enjoy it whenever I was able. Well, after a few pages, I missed the narrator so much that I returned the book and continued with the audio version. I could just hear him saying "It's okay, it's o-kay."

The Road tells the story of a father and son in a post-apocalyptic world. The bond between them is evident from the beginning. The hope that the father is able to instill in the son in this seemingly hopeless and dire environment is amazing.

Though place names are not mentioned, they are following a map, and it seems they are going through the mountains to the ocean - so I pictured heading west to the Pacific. Along the way they are able to stay one step ahead of the 'bad guys' and with the boy's insistence, help others whenever they are able. People are few and far between, and food and supplies are even scarcer.

With every step traveled, every tin of food found or lost, every imagined and unimagined danger, I was kept on the edge of my seat. Travel with the boy and his Papa on their search for any good that is left in the world as the continue to carry The Light.

I just discovered that this book has been made into a movie to be released this year! This will be a must see for me!

Other reviews:

Things Mean Alot

In Search of Giants

Reading Adventures

Walking with Wolf by Kay Chornook & Wolf Guindon (Book Review)

Title: Walking with Wolf
Author: Kay Chornook & Wolf Guindon (can contact the author at kchornook(at)rogers(dot)com)
Publisher: Wandering Words Press (2008)
Genre: Biography/Memoir

First Sentence: "I'm out here looking over the treetops, across the old clearings to the ridge and the Continental Divide, thinking about those early years."

At first, this book was hard to follow – it has so many people and places, many with unfamiliar names to me, that I was not sure how I was going to keep up. The style was also a little hard to follow –but I kept with it, and am glad that I did.

The narration of the book jumps back and forth between Kay and Wolf – and this was confusing in the beginning. As I read, I learned to watch for the “quotes” – as Wolf’s stories were “quoted” and Kay’s were not. I would also recommend that you allot enough time to read complete chapters at a sitting, as they are each like short stories.

Like chapter 4, Stepping Stones, which tells how the Quakers from America were accepted by the people of Costa Rica and how together the started building their community and businesses. From page 49:

“Monteverde felt like it was to be our home right from the beginning and it has continued to feel that way. The economics of it were and still are bouncing on the borderline. There have been opportunities to go into something better economically, but we’ve made our choices and feel very satisfied with them. I remember thinking, ‘Well, if the dairy plant fails and if Monteverde fails,’ and under the circumstances they very well could have, I felt I’d enjoyed the experience and could always start over and survive. Besides, at the time to me it wasn’t work, it was just part of the project of the community we were living in.”

I also liked chapter 6, The Path to Extinction, which tells the story of the golden toads and the part they played in helping bring awareness to the Monteverde Cloud Forest Reserve.

I cannot do justice in trying to give a complete overview of this book, as it encompasses so much time and important material, so I am going to cheat and include the words from the inside cover:

From the lush, windy cloud forest of Monteverde in Central America comes the story of pioneering conservationist Wolf Guindon. Jailed in the United States in 1949 as a conscientious objector, Wolf and his bride Lucky were among a small group of Quakers who left Alabama a year later in search of a new life and found it on a wet mountaintop in Costa Rica. For the next twenty years, Wolf labored to transform the land to make it habitable and productive, even as he was falling in love with the flourishing jungle around him. In 1972, he found a new purpose when he helped establish the Monteverde Cloud Forest Reserve. Since then he has worked relentlessly to secure the protection of the surrounding wilderness so that the flora and fauna of this vast, incredibly beautiful and biologically diverse region will be intact for generations to come.
In 1990, following her first experience of walking with Wolf for several days through the rainforest, Canadian social activist Kay Chornook gave Wolf a tape recorder. She encouraged him to record his many remarkable tales of cutting trails through the dense vegetation, following tapir tracks across the ridges, discovering the wonders of the wild abundance, and sharing innumerable cups of coffee with homesteaders, biologists and fellow adventurers. Walking with Wolf is a personal memoir, but it is also the history of a place and a movement as well as a celebration of lives lived amongst the trees of both Canada and Costa Rica.

Drinkwater by Eric Hopkins

Drinkwater - Eric Hopkins


From the cover: Drinkwater was originally an English word given to someone who abstains from drinking alcohol. As a family name it represents sobriety, dignity and self-control.

Nineteen-year old Amber Drinkwater knows that when life presents hardships, a responsible person meets them fairly, with a clear head and the willingness to work. Her plans to start a new life in Toronto with her brother Guy are interrupted when their uncle fails to meet them at the train station, but she resolves to abide until he turn up - and when it seems their caretaker is gone for good, she accepts it as an unexpected but timely call to independence and adult responsibility, inspite of her dearth of money or friends in the city.

The sprawling city of Toronto represents a shining opportunity for Amber to prove herself through an old code of grim endurance and bold resignation, but she will find her simple work ethic is no match for its modern towers, dark streets and disjointed neighbourhoods. Drinkwater is a provocative story that blurs the borders between teenage empowerment and helplessness, between experience and naivety, and between optimism and blind hope.

I am not sure that this is a good summation of this book - when I read this, I pictured a young girl, though facing what seems to be insurmountable odds, valiantly strives forward to success, however small. Maybe this was just the optimistic/romantic in me. This was not this book.

Amber and her brother, Guy(just a teenager), arrive in Toronto expecting their uncle Ian to meet their train - then they would begin their life there - Amber by transferring to the college in Toronto, and Guy by finishing high school. Never quite sure what happened to the parents, but the way things are phrased you get the idea that they have died. (So in all respect, maybe the point of this book was that these two were in shock over the death of their parents). The two kids never really do discuss their parents. What follows is about a week in the life of Amber as she proceeds to try to find them a place to stay, first until their uncle gets back - and when she realizes that isn't going to happen, a permanent place to stay. She also tries to get a job and get her brother enrolled in the local high school.

She bums lodging off of a tour guide (Carrie)she had meet the spring before, and when she wears out the welcome in her dorm, she stays with Carrie's boyfriend. She gets two jobs, one for which she never shows up for, and the other one at Tim Horton's (coffee shop) for which she is late, but does manage to work a few night shifts.

The book was somewhat disjointed - didn't really always follow where the characters were supposed to be. The kids do get separated and we learn very little about where or what happens to Guy after that. I didn't like the story and didn't like the ending - but it has stayed with me which I guess, in itself, says something. It does a good job of depicting how tough it is to get a start in life - especially as a young adult - if you do not have any sort of a plan or savings or just help in general. I am sure not everyone would feel the way that I do about this book. I want my reading to be all about what is good and right in the world so this always plays into my feelings. I would give this a 3/5 stars.

Publisher: Crackjaw Publishing http://www.crackjawpublishing.com/

In the Shadow of Lions - Review

In the Shadow of Lions is a beautifully written book by Ginger Garrett. It is the story of Anne Boleyn and the possible role she played in bringing the English version of the Bible into being. I sometimes shy away from books written in this era - something about the way they are written is just too "flowery" and unbelievable for me. This was not the case with this book.

A Scribe comes to visit a dying author in the hospital and tells her this story. The story of Anne and a peasant girl, Rose, during the reign of Henry VIII. It takes you through the "courtship" of Anne, through her marriage and the birth of her children, and gently leads you to her death, all the while hinting at the role she may have played in making the Hutchins Bible available to the common people. Rose, meanwhile, is living in the house of Thomas More, a man much opposed to this new Bible. During the telling of their stories, it also hints at a story behind the woman who lay dying - the one transcribing for the Scribe.

I really enjoyed reading this book - it makes me want to dig deeper into the story Anne Boleyn and also of William (Tyndale) Hutchins. I am considering using them as the basis for a themed reading challenge that I am going to sign up for.

This is Book 1 in the Chronicles of the Scribe series - and you can bet that I will be waiting for Book 2! 5 Stars!

Assaulted by Joy

Title: Assaulted by Joy - The Redemption of a Cynic
Author: Stephen W. Simpson
Publisher: Zondervan
Copyright: 2008

Assaulted by Joy is my first ARC that I am reviewing. What an exciting book! The question that was posed when I was asked if I would review this book was "Is this the perfect gift for the man in your life?" and I must answer with a resounding "YES!" I have already asked my husband if he would read it. But let me back up a little here. The author accepted Christ at the age of seven - (I love it when he says that this is where the story begins.) "When I walked down the aisle of a Baptist church as a boy to receive Christ as my Saviour, nobody told me that being a Christian is difficult, dangerous even. . .the closer you were to God, the happier you would be. The less you sinned and the more you followed God's Word, the more your life would be meaningful, happy, and complete. In my years as a follower of Christ, however, I've discovered that the opposite is often true. Don't get me wrong - the most ecstatic, victorious moments of my life resulted from having a relationship with Jesus, but so have the most aggravating and painful ones."*

His story, about his sometimes painful high school years (can everybody relate?), to college, losing a close friend, and meeting his wife and starting a family is engaging, humorous, in many instances I caught my self shaking my head in agreement - and is full of insight and wisdom that touched my life. I would like to share two of those nuggets here.

From chapter 3: What we don't realize is that we teach one another wisdom even when we hurt each other. We learn how to love in the midst of brokenness and imperfection. Those who hurt us sometimes teach us far more than those who love us. Sometimes they're even the same person. Those we care about have the greatest capacity to hurt us. Love creates the possibility of pain like nothing else. It's just like our relationship with God.*

From chapter 6: We could only make the best decision in a situation where there was no obvious choice. He told us that either choice involved potential guilt and loss. We might have to ask forgiveness from God regardless of what we chose.*

Now -for the question about a perfect gift for my husband. I would hope that this book would bring him a little closer to accepting Christ. He has been on the journey for awhile now and I have hope that letting him see someone else's walk with Christ (other than mine..) would open his heart even more.

I highly recommend this read for where ever you are in your personal journey -

*any quotes from this book are from an Advanced Reader's Copy and may not reflect the final published version.

This book also fulfills a book for the following challenges: What's in a Name, From the Stacks, Unread Authors, Countdown Challenge.

From the Stacks Challenge

Here I go with challenges again - this one might actually get me reading all of those TBR books! You can sign up here - rules are below:

From the Stacks Challenge 08
The basic rules are the same:

If you are anything like me your stack of purchased to-be-read books is teetering over. So for this challenge we would be reading 5 books that we have already purchased, have been meaning to get to, have been sitting on the nightstand and haven't read before. No going out and buying new books. No getting sidetracked by the lure of the holiday bookstore displays.

The bonus would be that we would finally get to some of those titles (you know you picked them for a reason!) and we wouldn't be spending any extra money over the holidays.

Possible picks:
Cold Mountain -Charles Frazier
Remains of the Day - Kazua Ishiguro
H.P. and the Half-Blood Prince - JK Rowling
Twilight - Stephenie Meyer
His Family - Ernest Poole

Actual books:
Assaulted by Joy - Stephen Simpson
In the Shadow of Lions - Ginger Garrett
Drinkwater - Eric Hopkins
The Road - Cormac McCarthy
Walking with Wolf - Kay Chornook & Wolf Guindon

The time frame would be Nov. 1st until Jan. 30 and there will be some small, fun prizes awarded to random participants and/or those with clever review posts.