Review of A Week in Winter, by Maeve Binchy

Chick Lit, Fiction Review, General, Literary, Starred Review 0

A Week in Winter

by Maeve Binchy

Alfred A. Knopf, New York, 2013. 326 pages.
Starred Review

Maeve Binchy died in July 2012, shortly after finishing this book. I’m so glad to read it, but so sorry to know it’s the last. Like all her books, A Week in Winter is a warm and cozy read that looks right into people’s hearts and lets us see intertwined lives touching one another.

A Week in Winter doesn’t have the punch of some of Maeve Binchy’s books, but it’s a warm and friendly way to say farewell. The book starts with Chicky who grew up in Stoneybridge, on the Irish coast, and ran off to America with a boy who came for the summer.

Chicky’s family thinks she’s a wicked fool to run away with him. So Chicky doesn’t tell them what’s really happening:

She wrote home week after week and believed in the fairy tale more and more. She started to fill a spiral notebook with details of the life she was meant to be living. She didn’t want to slip up on anything.

To console herself, she wrote to them about the wedding. She and Walter had been married in a quiet civil ceremony, she explained. They had a blessing from a Franciscan priest. It had been a wonderful occasion for them, and they knew that both families were delighted that they had made this commitment. Chicky said that Walter’s parents had been abroad at the time and not able to attend the ceremony but that everyone was happy about it.

In many ways, she managed to believe this was true. It was easier than believing that Walter was becoming restless and was going to move on.

Chicky does quite well, even after Walter leaves her. When her nieces talk about coming to visit, the kind husband of her letters suffers a tragic accident. And then, after some time, she goes back to Stoneybridge and purchases the Stone House on the water, using a “legacy” that is really her own hard-earned savings. She works with the last remaining Miss Sheedy (of the three sisters who had owned the house) to make it into a hotel.

Next, we take a look at Rigger, the son of one of Chicky’s friends. He gets into trouble, and needs to leave Dublin for awhile. He comes to work for Chicky, and meets a girl and starts settling down.

Then there’s Orla, Chicky’s niece, wanting some change after her best friend in Dublin gets married. She comes to work for Chicky, only for a year.

And then we start looking at the guests who come for opening week at Stone House. Winnie thinks she’ll book a vacation with the man she loves — and ends up taking it with the mother who has him under her thumb. There are people from all over the world — a Hollywood movie star, a Swede who’s meant to take over his father’s business but is interested in music, a husband and wife who are both doctors, and more. With each person who comes to visit, we get to look at their life leading up to this momentous week, as well as at how the week changes them.

The story is gentle and cozy. No big earth-shaking moments, but lots of rejuvenating ones and life-changing ones for the guests involved. One guest does manage to shake off the charm of the place, but most will leave the better for their vacation.

And the reader is the better for the vacation, too.

I’m so sad this is Maeve Binchy’s last book. She knew how to show her readers what’s really important.

maevebinchy.com
aaknopf.com

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Find this review on Sonderbooks at: www.sonderbooks.com/Fiction/week_in_winter.html

Disclosure: I am an Amazon Affiliate, and will earn a small percentage if you order a book on Amazon after clicking through from my site.

Source: This review is based on a library book from the Fairfax County Public Library.

Disclaimer: I am a professional librarian, but I maintain my website and blogs on my own time. The views expressed are solely my own, and in no way represent the official views of my employer or of any committee or group of which I am part.

Please use the comments if you’ve read the book and want to discuss spoilers!

Review of Stolen Magic, by Stephanie Burgis

Alternate History, Children's Fiction Review, Fantasy, Historical, Starred Review 0

Stolen Magic

by Stephanie Burgis

Atheneum Books for Young Readers, New York, 2013. 383 pages.
Starred Review

Hooray! A third book about the Kat, Incorrigible! These books are a delightful combination of Regency England, with its proper manners and society dos and don’ts, combined with Magic! I recommended it just this week to someone whose daughter loved Sorcery and Cecilia, by Patricia C. Wrede and Caroline Stevermer. The main difference is that Kat is younger, though her siblings get into romantic adventures in each book, so there is still a touch of romance, but Kat keeps it light-hearted.

Kat is the youngest of four siblings. Her mother died when she was ten days old, but left a legacy of two kinds of magic, in conflict. It turns out that her mother was one of the ever-so-proper Guardians of England, with strong magic for protecting the country. But her mother was kicked out of the Guardians for practicing witchcraft. Kat has inherited her abilities in both, but needs to keep from practicing witchcraft if she wants to be initiated into the Guardians.

In this third book, Kat is getting ready for her initiation. But the whole family is also getting ready for her sister Angeline’s wedding. They are staying at Angeline’s husband-to-be’s home, and his family is not at all welcoming. They are high in society and very wealthy and don’t approve of Angeline, and even less of Kat. And if Angeline lets slip that she is a witch? Well, that could very well be the last straw.

Meanwhile, it seems that someone is stalking Kat and trying to hurt the people she loves. And all the “extra” portals have been stolen, so Kat may not be able to join the Guardians after all.

All this takes place in a proper setting seen through the eyes of Kat — who isn’t exactly known for following conventions.

Here’s how the book begins:

Despite what either of my sisters may say, I actually possess a great deal of common sense. That was why I waited until nearly midnight on the last night of our journey into Devon before I climbed out of my bedroom window.

Luckily, my family was staying on the first floor of the inn, so the rope I’d brought along in case of emergencies was more than long enough. Luckier yet, I knew a useful secret: it’s much easier to sneak out in the middle of the night when you can make yourself invisible.

Though you could enjoy this book on its own, I really think you’ll appreciate it more if you read Kat, Incorrigible and Renegade Magic first. And I was very happy to see that this book ends with hints of trouble to come: England is at war with Napoleon, and French magic-users are proving to be very powerful. The story comes to a satisfying conclusion, but I was happy that there is clearly more to come, and I will be waiting eagerly.

This series just makes me smile! Think light-hearted Jane Austen for kids — with magic!

stephanieburgis.com
KIDS.SimonandSchuster.com

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Find this review on Sonderbooks at: www.sonderbooks.com/Childrens_Fiction/stolen_magic.html

Disclosure: I am an Amazon Affiliate, and will earn a small percentage if you order a book on Amazon after clicking through from my site.

Source: This review is based on a copy sent to me by the publisher.

Disclaimer: I am a professional librarian, but I maintain my website and blogs on my own time. The views expressed are solely my own, and in no way represent the official views of my employer or of any committee or group of which I am part.

Please use the comments if you’ve read the book and want to discuss spoilers!

Review of Midwinterblood, by Marcus Sedgwick

Paranormal, Starred Review, Teaser Tuesdays 0

Midwinterblood

by Marcus Sedgwick

Roaring Brook Press, New York, 2013. 262 pages.
Starred Review

Wow. This is one of those books that after reading, I just sit there in amazement at the level of craft that went into it (well, actually lie there — I read in bed). It’s one you want to read over again to fully appreciate all the details. Though next time, just for the fun of it, I might read it backwards.

How to describe it without giving too much away? The book is a series of interconnected stories. The first story takes place in 2073. The next section takes place in 2011. And the sections go progressively further back in time, all the way to prehistoric times, with a section going back to 2073 at the very end, tying everything together. So well done.

I won’t give away exactly what the connection is. You’ll get the idea quickly. Certain common elements occur in all the stories, and finally at the end, you understand why.

All of the book is set on an island in the far north, an island called Blessed. The island is home to a rare “Dragon” orchid. And strange things happen there.

Every story is creepy, disturbing in some way or other, atmospheric. But I don’t usually like creepy stories, and I loved this. He manages never to cross the line into awful. There’s a lot of variety in the stories, including a vampire story and a ghost story, but even though I usually don’t like vampire stories or ghost stories, every one of these stories was exceptionally good. There’s a lot of untimely death in the stories, but they never sink into despair.

Another thing that perplexed me was that recently, I made some comments in School Library Journal’s Battle of the Books regarding Jepp, Who Defied the Stars as to how strongly prejudiced I am against books that are written in present tense. But this book was written in present tense (all the different time periods), and it didn’t bother me in the slightest. So I am going to have to modify my analysis. Clearly present tense isn’t the problem. It must be something about the way it is often used. Maybe it bothers me when there’s too much telling in present tense and not enough showing? I’m not sure how he did it, but Marcus Sedgwick made the present tense storytelling seem absolutely right. Maybe it just takes a truly outstanding writer. Now I’m going to look harder at which present tense books I hate, which I can tolerate, and which blow me away with their craft. (So far, this is the only one I can think of in that category.)

Anyway, since I don’t want to give away what’s going on in this book, I’ll finish my review with the beginning of the book, set in June 2073, and so full of promise:

The sun does not go down.

This is the first thing that Eric Seven notices about Blessed Island. There will be many other strange things that he will notice, before the forgetting takes hold of him, but that will come later.

For now, he checks his watch as he stands at the top of the island’s solitary hill, gazing to where the sun should set. It is midnight, but the sun still shines, barely dipping its heavy rim into the sea on the far horizon.

The island is so far north.

He shakes his head.

He’s thinking about Merle. How something seems to wait in her eyes. How he felt calm, just standing next to her.

“Well, so it is,” he says, smiling with wonder.

There! Just writing that out, I noticed the significance of one little detail that I hadn’t noticed before. I must read this book again to appreciate the craft even further!

This book is amazing. It’s got sinister undertones, but the even those who don’t like creepy books (like me) may be won over by the sheer brilliance, as the author uses the unsettling elements in a way that adds to the story’s power. This is one that will stick with you.

macteenbooks.com

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Find this review on Sonderbooks at: www.sonderbooks.com/Teens/midwinterblood.html

Disclosure: I am an Amazon Affiliate, and will earn a small percentage if you order a book on Amazon after clicking through from my site.

Source: This review is based on a library book from the Fairfax County Public Library.

Disclaimer: I am a professional librarian, but I maintain my website and blogs on my own time. The views expressed are solely my own, and in no way represent the official views of my employer or of any committee or group of which I am part.

Please use the comments if you’ve read the book and want to discuss spoilers!

Review of Helen’s Big World, by Doreen Rappaport and Matt Tavares

Biography, Children's Nonfiction Review, Starred Review 0

Helen’s Big World

The Life of Helen Keller

written by Doreen Rappaport
illustrated by Matt Tavares

Disney Hyperion Books, New York, 2012. 44 pages.
Starred Review

I expected to skim through this book and then turn it back in to the library. I already reviewed an excellent children’s biography of Helen Keller back when I was first starting Sonderbooks. But as soon as I opened the book, I knew this was something special.

Helen’s Big World is for a younger audience than Helen Keller: A Determined Life. It’s a picture book biography, and the pictures are oversize and magnificent.

The format is large and almost square, and each double-page spread features a painting. There is text on each page, but not a daunting amount, and with reasonably large print. Each page features a quotation from Helen Keller herself, talking about her life.

The story is familiar to adults. How Helen was struck blind at a young age, and Annie Sullivan came into her life and taught her and brought metaphorical light into her world. It goes on to show Helen, with Annie, learning about many different things.

I like the page with Annie at the bow of a boat with a wave breaking over it. The text on that page reads:

Annie took Helen
walking in the forest,
jumping in the salty ocean,
tobogganing down snowy hills,
bicycling in tandem,
and sailing in a boat.
And she spelled out each new experience.

The book goes on to tell about Helen’s work as an adult, writing and speaking across the country. The text stays simple, and the pictures show some of the different settings where she spoke and traveled. The book also includes a Manual Language Chart on the back cover.

A lovely first biography.

doreenrappaport.com
matttavares.com
disneyhyperionbooks.com

I’m posting this review today in honor of Nonfiction Monday, hosted today at A Wrung Sponge. Thanks, Andromeda!

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Find this review on Sonderbooks at: www.sonderbooks.com/Childrens_Nonfiction/helens_big_world.html

Disclosure: I am an Amazon Affiliate, and will earn a small percentage if you order a book on Amazon after clicking through from my site.

Source: This review is based on a library book from the Fairfax County Public Library.

Disclaimer: I am a professional librarian, but I maintain my website and blogs on my own time. The views expressed are solely my own, and in no way represent the official views of my employer or of any committee or group of which I am part.

Review of Exclamation Mark, by Amy Krouse Rosenthal & Tom Lichtenfeld

Delightfully Silly, Picture Book Review, Starred Review 0

Exclamation Mark

!

by Amy Krouse Rosenthal & Tom Lichtenheld

Scholastic Press, New York, 2013. 52 pages.
Starred Review

It’s impossible for me not to love this book. It’s not even for my main audience — the preschool story time crowd. It is for kids in early elementary school who are learning about punctuation. And it’s simply perfect. Those kids are not the only ones who will love this book.

The expression of this story is completely visual. It plays out on the background of school writing paper. We’ve got a row of periods with little faces — and one exclamation mark.

He stood out from the very beginning.

It’s easy for the reader to see that the exclamation mark doesn’t fit in. He is different. He tries to be like his friends. But he becomes confused, flummoxed, and deflated, with appropriate illustrations of his top part in a twist.

Then one day, he meets a question mark.

The question mark asks one question after another. (Hilarious questions, I might add.)

When the exclamation mark shouts for him to stop, it is indeed an exclamation.

He didn’t know he had it in him.

He then explores his newly discovered power. I love the way the question mark eggs him on, always with questions (“How’d you do that? Can you do it again?”)

His exclamations get more and more excited, colorful, and all over the page. “It was like he broke free from a life sentence.”

Question mark: “Isn’t he something?”
Periods: “There was never any question in our minds.”

Okay, as I write this, it occurs to me that maybe I love this book so much because I love puns. In a sense, this whole book is a pun, done perfectly. And it’s a happy story about being an individual and making your mark. And it teaches about punctuation in a way no kid will ever forget. Hmm. Is that why they call it pun-ctuation? (Sorry.)

Way too much fun!

whoisamy.com
tomlichtenheld.com
scholastic.com

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Find this review on Sonderbooks at: www.sonderbooks.com/Picture_Books/exclamation_mark.html

Disclosure: I am an Amazon Affiliate, and will earn a small percentage if you order a book on Amazon after clicking through from my site.

Source: This review is based on a library book from the Fairfax County Public Library.

Disclaimer: I am a professional librarian, but I maintain my website and blogs on my own time. The views expressed are solely my own, and in no way represent the official views of my employer or of any committee or group of which I am part.

Review of Charlotte’s Web, by E. B. White

Animal Characters, Audiobooks, Award Winners, Children's Fiction Review, Classics, Contemporary, Fantasy, Starred Review, Top 100 Writers and Illustrators 0

Charlotte’s Web

by E. B. White
read by the Author

Listening Library, 2002. Written in 1952. Recorded in 1970. 3 compact discs.
Starred Review
1953 Newbery Honor Book
1970 Laura Ingalls Wilder Award

Charlotte’s Web has twice been voted the #1 Children’s Chapter Book of all time by librarians and parents voting in Betsy Bird‘s School Library Journal Top 100 Chapter Books Poll. In fact, it was reading Betsy’s post that I learned that there is an audio with E. B. White reading the book. I immediately checked if our library had that version and happily took it home.

It’s been many years since I’ve read this practically perfect book. My third grade teacher read it to me the first time. Later, I read it to my sons. And my older son watched the Hanna-Barbara animated version over and over again. As I listened to the audiobook, I realized that the many lines I had memorized were the ones that were used in the film. And they did keep many, many of the great lines. (Like the starting and ending lines. Like Charlotte’s salutation.) But I’d forgotten a lot of the side scenes that didn’t make it to the film.

There are so many scenes simply of life in the barn. Swinging on the rope swing. Wilbur escaping his pen right at the beginning. How it felt to have slops poured on top of Wilbur or to roll in the warm manure. The book is truly a paean to life in the barn.

Now at the beginning, I didn’t feel E. B. White measured up to the actors and especially actresses I remembered reciting the lines in my head. But his voice grew on me, and it’s a good, down-to-earth voice for this story. You can hear in his voice his love for the quiet life of the barn. It’s truly a treasure to still be able to listen to him telling his masterpiece of a story.

Now, there’s no need to critique this classic. I was surprised to find little quibbles. What happens to Fern when the whole spider plot happens. Isn’t she in on it? But it’s Charlotte’s Web! The book is genius, and it works. And you can listen to it read by E. B. White himself.

listeninglibrary.com

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Find this review on Sonderbooks at: www.sonderbooks.com/Childrens_Fiction/charlottes_web.html

Disclosure: I am an Amazon Affiliate, and will earn a small percentage if you order a book on Amazon after clicking through from my site.

Source: This review is based on a library audiobook from the Fairfax County Public Library.

Disclaimer: I am a professional librarian, but I maintain my website and blogs on my own time. The views expressed are solely my own, and in no way represent the official views of my employer or of any committee or group of which I am part.

Please use the comments if you’ve read the book and want to discuss spoilers!

Review of Proof of Heaven, by Eben Alexander, MD

Biography, Christian, Nonfiction Review, Starred Review, True Stories 0

Proof of Heaven

A Neurosurgeon’s Journey into the Afterlife

by Eben Alexander, M.D.

Simon & Schuster, New York, 2012. 196 pages.
Starred Review

Let me say right up front that for skeptics, it will take more than one person’s personal experience, even a neurosurgeon’s personal experience to convince them that heaven is real. For someone who already believes it, though, Eben Alexander’s story is wonderful confirmation. And it’s clear that his experience convinced him.

As a neurosurgeon, Dr. Alexander believed that our consciousness and existence is rooted in our brain and neurochemical impulses. So when he was attacked with meningitis that completely disabled his neocortex, he shouldn’t have been conscious of anything. Instead, he experienced heaven and talked with God.

At the very least a miracle happened that he survived six days in a coma and recovered full brain function afterward. Dr. Alexander goes into the medical details of his case, and it’s clear that at the very least his experience convinced him that heaven is real and our consciousness can exist apart from our brain.

I’ve read a few of these books about near death experiences now. It does strike me that the details are different for each one, and for each one it suits what the person knows and expects (though all would say it’s much grander than what they expect). But at least one message is common to all of them: God loves you. So much.

Here’s how Dr. Alexander explains in the Prologue that his story is important:

During my coma my brain wasn’t working improperly — it wasn’t working at all. . . . In my case, the neocortex was out of the picture. I was encountering the reality of a world of consciousness that existed completely free of the limitations of my physical brain.

Mine was in some ways a perfect storm of near-death experiences. As a practicing neurosurgeon with decades of research and hands-on work in the operating room behind me, I was in a better-than-average position to judge not only the reality but also the implications of what happened to me.

Those implications are tremendous beyond description. My experience showed me that the death of the body and the brain are not the end of consciousness, that human experience continues beyond the grave. More important, it continues under the gaze of a God who loves and cares about each one of us and about where the universe itself and all the beings within it are ultimately going.

The place I went was real. real in a way that makes the life we’re living here and now completely dreamlike by comparison. This doesn’t mean I don’t value the life I’m living now, however. In fact, I value it more than I ever did before. I do so because I now see it in its true context.

Perhaps Proof of Heaven is an overly optimistic title for some. But if you do believe in heaven, reading this book will bolster your faith and remind you that some important things in life can’t be seen with our physical eyes. And God loves you.

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Find this review on Sonderbooks at: www.sonderbooks.com/Nonfiction/proof_of_heaven.html

Disclosure: I am an Amazon Affiliate, and will earn a small percentage if you order a book on Amazon after clicking through from my site.

Source: This review is based on a library book from the Fairfax County Public Library.

Disclaimer: I am a professional librarian, but I maintain my website and blogs on my own time. The views expressed are solely my own, and in no way represent the official views of my employer or of any committee or group of which I am part.

Review of Princess of the Silver Woods, by Jessica Day George

Fairy Tale Variant, Fantasy, Starred Review, Teen Fiction Review 0

Princess of the Silver Woods

by Jessica Day George

Bloomsbury, 2012. 322 pages.
Starred Review

I finally got a chance to read Princess of the Silver Woods! It first came out when I was busy reading books for the 2012 Cybils, but too late in the year to be eligible for one. Princess of the Silver Woods wraps up the trilogy begun in Princess of the Midnight Ball and continued in Princess of Glass. Yes, you should read the earlier books to fully appreciate this one.

All the books play off specific fairy tales. The first one, which laid the groundwork, played off “The Twelve Dancing Princesses.” The second one played off “Cinderella.” This one plays off “Little Red Riding Hood.”

And now we interrupt this review for a mini-rant.

What IS it with the “Red Riding Hood” take-offs? People, “Little Red Riding Hood” is not a romantic story! What are you all doing basing romantic novels on that plot? Enough already! It probably didn’t help that the first one I read was Cloaked in Red, by Vivian Vande Velde. Unlike the others, Cloaked in Red is not a romantic novel, but a collection of stories from different perspectives, all based on “Little Red Riding Hood.” Pretty much all variations are covered. It’s fun and it’s silly, and there’s a story where each different character shines.

The three recent romantic novels that played off the story were Beauty and the Werewolf, by Mercedes Lackey; Scarlet, by Marissa Meyer; and Princess of the Silver Woods, by Jessica Day George. What’s more, I’ve had Cloaked, by Alex Flinn, sitting on my shelf at home for months. I think I understand now why I haven’t gotten around to reading it.

Of these, my favorite was probably Beauty and the Werewolf — and that’s particularly because it got off the story of “Little Red Riding Hood” and made far more parallels with “Beauty and the Beast,” a fairy tale that is romantic and that I do love (however twisted it may be).

But you know what? By the third time someone’s making the “wolf” the romantic hero and the huntsman the sinister villain, I no longer find that the least bit innovative. And the “grandmother”? (Though Beauty and the Werewolf didn’t have one.) Whatever weird situation you’re getting her into, I really don’t care.

Okay, mini-rant is over. Now let’s talk about why I loved Princess of the Silver Woods in spite of that.

And, yes, I loved Princess of the Silver Woods. Fortunately, the “Little Red Riding Hood” parallels were not a big part of the story. Sure, she wore a striking red cloak, but I don’t mind that. And yeah, he’s part of a gang of bandits that call themselves “The Wolves of Westfalin,” but really he’s good at heart, and an earl who’s lost his land. He only steals because he has to feed his people.

[I’ll try to spare you another mini-rant. What is it with the romantic thief? No, I don’t find thieves attractive. Gen wins me over in spite of that, and The False Prince eventually, too. But being a good thief is not an admirable quality, okay? It doesn’t belong to you. Leave it alone, for crying out loud! Find some field work to do! You don’t have to steal! Okay, I’ll stop. That also wasn’t a big part of this book.]

Okay, I’m starting to wonder why I did like this book!

But the situation Petunia, the youngest of the twelve princesses, finds herself in is compelling. She’s visiting a grand duchess with a handsome grandson. (He’s a huntsman, so that can’t be good.) She’s having horrible nightmares, in which she’s back in the Kingdom Under Stone (from the first book, based on “The Twelve Dancing Princesses.” Such a sinister place). In her dreams, Kestilan, the prince of the Under Stone kingdom, says she will have to marry him. And then Oliver, the landless earl who’s turned to banditry, sees something chilling:

It was very late, and all the windows were dark. Oliver found himself praying silently that someone would light a lamp or a candle, even if the light exposed him. What were those things crawling across the lawn? With a mounting sense of horror, he saw the dark shapes reach the house.

With a terrible laugh, the shadow creatures pulled themselves up the wall to a window on the second floor that was open despite the cold. Oliver hid behind a fountain. The room they had just entered had been his childhood bedroom. Whose was it now? He prayed again, this time that the room had not been given to Petunia.

His question was answered a few moments later when a young woman’s voice cried out, the sound carrying clearly through the open window. She screamed out denials, she screamed out insults, and over and over again she reviled someone called “Kestilan.”

“Oh, ye gods, Petunia,” Oliver whispered from his concealment. “What is all this?”

After the shadows leave the house, they come across the lawn toward Oliver:

“Stay away from her,” Oliver said, trying to sound dangerous and not terrified.

Another cackling laugh. The shadow reached out and put its hand into Oliver’s chest. A sheath of ice instantly covered his heart, and then the shadow squeezed. Oliver gasped as intense pain flared in his chest, streaking through his entire body. He tried to step back but found that he couldn’t move so much as an eyelid.

“She is not for you,” the shadow said in a low, harsh voice. “She is for us. All of them are for us.”

That was enough to hook me. I had to find out if Petunia and her eleven sisters could rid themselves of the foe they thought they’d already defeated, the King Under Stone, once and for all.

JessicaDayGeorge.com
bloomsburyteens.com

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Find this review on Sonderbooks at: www.sonderbooks.com/Teens/princess_of_the_silver_woods.html

Disclosure: I am an Amazon Affiliate, and will earn a small percentage if you order a book on Amazon after clicking through from my site.

Source: This review is based on a library book from the Fairfax County Public Library.

Disclaimer: I am a professional librarian, but I maintain my website and blogs on my own time. The views expressed are solely my own, and in no way represent the official views of my employer or of any committee or group of which I am part.

Please use the comments if you’ve read the book and want to discuss spoilers!

Review of Beautiful Outlaw, by John Eldredge

Christian, Nonfiction Review, Personal Growth, Starred Review 0

Beautiful Outlaw

Experiencing the Playful, Disruptive, Extravagant Personality of Jesus

by John Eldredge

Faith Words, New York, 2011. 219 pages.
Starred Review

In Beautiful Outlaw, John Eldredge looks at the personality of Jesus. He points out that Jesus was not the sort of person who didn’t make waves. He does an amazing job of causing the reader to take a fresh look.

What is missing in our Gospel reading — and in our attempts to “read” what Jesus is saying and doing in our own lives right now, this week — is his personality, undraped by religion. Let’s see if we can find it.

Now, I’m well-versed in the Gospel story. I’ve read about Jesus over and over again. But John Eldredge was able to make even me see Jesus in a fresh light. I felt like he was saying, Remember? This is what Jesus is like. Here’s his take on the Gospel story:

Any way you look at it, it is a beautiful story. Playful, funny, so human, so hopeful, so unreligious. And it is that particular quality that gives the passage its true character and gives us an essential for knowing Jesus as he really is. The man is not religious. If he were, the story would have taken place in a religious setting — the temple, perhaps, or at least a synagogue — and Jesus would have gathered them for a Bible study or prayer meeting. Jesus doesn’t even show up at the temple after his resurrection. He’s at the beach, catching his boys fishing, filling their empty nets and then having them to breakfast.

The subtitle talks about the aspects of Jesus’ personality the author focuses on: He’s playful, disruptive, and extravagant. But all of this talk about Jesus’ personality is to tell us it’s worth it to let Jesus’ life fill our lives. He’s talking about Christ living in us.

As we love him, experience him, allow his life to fill ours, the personality of Jesus transforms our personalities. The timid become bold and the bold become patient and the patient become fierce and the uptight become free and the religious become scandalously good. “They looked to Him and were radiant” (Psalm 34:5 NASB). They looked to Jesus and became like him. Loving Jesus helps us to become what human beings were meant to be. As Athanasius said, “He became what we are that we might become what he is.”

In short, this book is about looking hard at who Jesus really is, and then letting Him change who we really are.

beautifuloutlaw.net
ransomedheart.com
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Review of When Stravinsky Met Nijinsky, by Lauren Stringer

Children's Nonfiction Review, History, Picture Book Review, Starred Review 0

When Stravinsky Met Nijinsky

Two Artists, Their Ballet, and One Extraordinary Riot

by Lauren Stringer

Harcourt Children’s Books, 2013. 32 pages.
Starred Review

This picture book nonfiction book is extraordinary. It’s a picture book; the language is simple enough for young elementary school students to fully understand. The pictures exquisitely evoke the music and dance of the ballet The Rite of Spring.

I’ve seen a performance of The Rite of Spring years ago in Los Angeles, but I wasn’t prepared for how completely this book brought that performance — which I hadn’t thought about in years — to the forefront of my mind.

I hadn’t remembered that the first time the ballet was performed, it ignited a riot in Paris. That event is the climax of the book, but it gets there in such a delightful way.

First, the book talks about the music and dance that Stravinsky and Nijinsky created by themselves.

Then Stravinsky met Nijinsky
and his music began to change.

His piano pirouetted a puppet,
his tuba leaped a loping bear,
and his trumpet tah-tahed
a twirling ballerina.

And when Nijinsky met Stravinsky,
his dance began to change.

His torso trumpeted a melody,
his arms and legs sang from strings,
and his feet began
to pom-di-di-pom like timpani.

Stravinsky inspired Nijinsky.
Nijinsky inspired Stravinsky.

Together they decided to dream of something different and new.

The book goes on to talk about the creation of The Rite of Spring and the reactions of the musicians and dancers, and, eventually, the crowd in Paris.

I can’t stress enough how wonderful the illustrations are. They aren’t a literal, photographic description of the times. They use styles of the art of the times to symbolically represent what’s going on, while still showing concrete things like dancers in Paris. I love the faces of the people in the music hall and in the streets of Paris. Some are smiling beatifically. Others have their hands over their ears with their faces puckered in disgust.

I also love the picture of Stravinsky and Nijinsky in tuxedo with tails dancing together surrounded by a ring of music with costumed dancers and instruments and music with unusual time signatures. That goes to show I can’t describe it nearly as effectively as one glance at the picture will give you. Across the page, there’s an exuberantly dancing cat and dog.

This is a colorful and exuberant book that tells a good story about art and a true moment in history and the way two friends working together helped both attain greatness.

This review is posted today in honor of Nonfiction Monday, hosted today at Anastasia Suen’s Booktalking.

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Buy from Amazon.com

Find this review on Sonderbooks at: www.sonderbooks.com/Childrens_Nonfiction/when_stravinsky_met_nijinsky.html

Disclosure: I am an Amazon Affiliate, and will earn a small percentage if you order a book on Amazon after clicking through from my site.

Source: This review is based on a library book from the Fairfax County Public Library.

Disclaimer: I am a professional librarian, but I maintain my website and blogs on my own time. The views expressed are solely my own, and in no way represent the official views of my employer or of any committee or group of which I am part.