One for the Books - Homeschool Blogger

The unfaithful blogger

Sat, 16 Aug 2008 20:32:00 -0500

I obviously haven't been a very good blogger lately, and in all truth, I don't know that I'll be on here very much after this. I'm going to be quite busy, because I'm going to college this year.

It was actually quite the unexpected decision for me. I didn't decide until late this spring that I was going to graduate early and go to college. It took a little while to even get used to the idea.

I will be attending a Bible college about 45 minutes away from my home. My sister attends there currently, so we'll be there together this first year. I'm going to be living on campus, so that will be a big adventure.

I'm both excited and afraid to do this. I know it's going to be a ton of fun, but there's a lot of things that are going to change, and that's scary. Some things aren't ever going to be the same anymore. But I really feel up for this new challenge, and I think it's going to be a good thing.

I can try to post from college, but no promises. I'm sure I'll have a lot of stories though. I hope I'll have enough time to tell a few of them on here.

Strange questions

Fri, 23 May 2008 19:00:00 -0500

A lot of people tend to view the library as an information venue that can answer any question. Thus, working at a library, I’ve answered some pretty interesting, tough, and strange questions.

The other day when I was at work, I answered the phone, and the lady at the other end said, “Hi, we’re having a small argument at our house…”

I thought, okaaaaay.

She then proceeded to say, “I say the guy’s name is Johann Sebastian Bach, but my granddaughter keeps saying that his first name is Wolfgang.”

Aha.

Read in the month of April

Wed, 7 May 2008 22:01:00 -0500

It’s a tad bit late for this, but I will post it nonetheless.

Time Cat by Lloyd Alexander

Art Auction Mystery by Anna Nilsen

Cloud of Witness by Dorothy L. Sayers

Murder Must Advertise by Dorothy L. Sayers

Moon-Spinners by Mary Stewart

The Inimitable Jeeves by P.G. Wodehouse

Till We Have Faces by C.S. Lewis

Do Hard Things by Alex and Brett Harris

The Unusual Suspects by Michael Buckley

High Courage by Rosemary Weir

The Willoughbys by Lois Lowry

Detectives in Togas by Henry Winterfield

Favorite book from this month: Er, probably Do Hard Things. That was a good book. I would definitely recommend it.

Best new discovery: P.G. Wodehouse. How can you resist a main character that says stuff like “Pip-pip” and “Toodle-oo”? (Leastwise I think that’s what he said…I don’t have the book with me now.)

Spiders and songs in 6/8 time

Thu, 17 Apr 2008 20:14:00 -0500

I have a very cool piano teacher. Not only does she know about playing music, she also knows about the history of music, why composers wrote the way they did, and a ton of other stuff.

Technically, a Tarantella is a fast song written in 6/8 time. However, there is a more interesting story behind this particular type of song, and the other day my teacher told it to me.

If you literally translate the word Tarantella from its original Italian, it means tarantula. In Italy, many years ago, if a person was bitten by a tarantula, he knew just what to do. He would call up his friendly local witch doctor, or whatnot, and this doctor would wildly dance over the bitten person to a song in 6/8 time. Supposedly, this would cure the bitten person, and save them from imminent death.

So, did this little trick work? You bet your britches it did.

See, tarantula bites are not fatal. The bite might hurt like crazy for a while, but eventually, it will heal.

Not knowing this, the people back then kept dancing their little dance, and thinking it worked marvelously.

Or so the story goes. Searching the internet, I’ve seen a couple of different explanations as to the origins of the dance. However, I think this one is an awfully good one.

Now that you know the story behind, perhaps you’ll be interested in listening to a few actual Tarantella songs. I found a couple of good YouTube videos. I don’t know how to actually inset them in to my post, so you’ll have to click the links.

Here’s a Tarantella written by Liszt. It’s quite long, but at least watch the first few minutes. It’s very cool.

And here’s a much shorter one written by Albert Pieczonka.

Mystery Mondays ~ Dorothy Sayers

Mon, 14 Apr 2008 16:58:00 -0500

I just recently discovered the books of Dorothy Sayers, and have only read three of her books thus far. However, I do believe I will be reading more of her works.

Sayers created a detective by the name of Lord Peter Wimsey. He tends to exist in a perpetual state of cheerfulness, which can become grating at times. In situations call for seriousness, he can seem a little unfeeling, a fact which he doesn’t seem to realize. In one of her books, Cloud of Witnesses, Lord Peter asks his manservant, “Bunter, is my manner really offensive, when I don’t mean it to be?”

On the other hand, Sayers does balance out his character in the other direction as well. Somehow, the fact that he isn’t easily shaken makes the times when he is upset more significant. Just when I want to throttle him, he’ll experience a moment of sympathy, or anger, or sadness, and then all is right in my reading world once again.

While Sayers tends to make her endings less surprising than some other writers (or at least one specific one that I plan to write about), her plots are suspenseful enough to keep me eagerly reading to find out “whodunit”. I’ve enjoyed discovering her books.

Caution: you may encounter bad language and/or mature situations when reading a Dorothy Sayers book. Use discretion.

New Beginnings

Wed, 9 Apr 2008 17:14:00 -0500

I’ve had a very nice blogging break. I’m hoping that now I’ll be able to be more consistent for a while.

Actually, I don’t feel too guilty about my long silence. I’ve noticed that a lot of people seem to be taking a rest from blogging. Perhaps it’s the winter doldrums. After a few months cooped up in the house, a lot of things seem to become stale. Air and motivation being two of them.

I love fresh starts. There’s nothing I relish more than staring at the first page of a blank notebook. When I’ve unwisely spent my day doing nothing (which is most of the time, in the interest of honesty), it’s infinitely satisfying to think that the next day is a whole new opportunity to do things differently.

The fact that I love starting over is a testament to the fact that I mess up a lot. But that is what I love about spring. It’s like a fresh, new beginning.

Mystery Mondays ~ G.K. Chesterton

Mon, 10 Mar 2008 22:35:00 -0500

Gaaah! It's Mystery Monday, and I almost forgot to post! The first author I wanted to highlight is G.K. Chesterton.

Perhaps you know G.K. Chesterton better for all the thinker stuff he writes. He did, however, create a detective by the name of Father Brown.

Father Brown isn’t your typical detective. He’s a priest for one thing. He’s also quite dumpy, carries an umbrella, and exudes an air of profound confusion. Don’t be fooled though. In reality, Father Brown sees much more clearly than most, if not all, of the people around him.

G.K. Chesterton made Father Brown the star of 52 short stories. You can probably find these compiled into a volume title The Complete Father Brown, or something of the sort, at your local library.

It’s been a little while since I read any Father Brown mystery stories. If I remember correctly, I was sometimes left in a state of confusion after reading one, because G.K. Chesterton mixed in a healthy dose “thinker” stuff into his mysteries. My poor little brain, which was wild to know who the murderer was, would rebelliously refuse to absorb all this, leaving me bemused.

Despite my brain’s failings, these stories were usually enjoyable reads for me. I should probably try them again now that I’m a little older. If you like your philosophy and mystery at the same time, try Father Brown.

Introduction to Mystery Mondays

Thu, 6 Mar 2008 19:43:00 -0600

If I have a weakness for any genre of book, it’s mysteries. I won’t deliberately read a cheesy book of any other type, but I will read a cheesy mystery. That’s not to say that I like the fact that the mystery is cheesy—it’s just that I’ll put up with it.

I’ve discovered some very good mystery writers over time. Most of them are adult. It’s rare for me to find a kid’s mystery that I’m satisfied with. Over the next couple of weeks, I’d like to highlight some of my favorite mystery authors, both for adults and children. And I think I’ll do it on Mondays, just so I can call it Mystery Monday. I like alliteration.

It’s rather obvious that it’s not Monday right now, so I won’t post anything today. However, I hope to have something up at the beginning of next week. Tune in then.

Book Review ~ The Giver

Mon, 3 Mar 2008 17:36:00 -0600

I have to tell you, if you haven't read this book, you're really missing out. I've read it several times, and it's just as good with each read. In fact, we just read it over at the SAYR, and it made for some great discussion questions.

I'm sorry if the review seems a little Newbery heavy. The reason for that is because I cross-posted it over at my other blog, Everything Newbery.

The Giver by Lois Lowry

Jonas lives in a world as near to perfect as it can be made. Every citizen of his community respects every other citizen. Each person has his or her place. The community runs like a well-oiled machine. Jonas is perfectly happy with this—until. Until he meets the Giver. Suddenly Jonas’s wonderful perception of his community begins to rust away, flake by flake.

When I started out reading the Newbery Award and Honor books, I was basically rereading. I didn’t want to spend a whole lot of time going “Well, I read this about five years ago. Should I count that as having read it for this project?” So I just decided to reread everything. We had quite a few Newbery books laying around the house, so I gathered them into a pile, and using the highly scientific method of eeny-meeny-miny-moe, began reading. None of the books were really new or exciting to me.

The Giver was one of the first Newbery books that I borrowed from the library, one that I hadn’t read yet. I think I’d kind of heard of it. But really, I wandered into it unawares, and came out grinning like some kind of overly happy clown. Looking back in my Newbery notebook, I see that I babbled somewhat incoherently about how great it was after I was finished.

What can I say about this book that hasn’t already been said by dozens of other reviewers? I can tell you why I think it clicked for me. It was the mixture of depth and accessibility. When I think of a “serious” book, words like “slow-moving” and “dull” come to mind. That’s probably a wrong assumption—but that’s a topic for another post. What I liked about The Giver was that it actually moved. Yet it also made me use my brain, and challenged ideas I had taken for granted.

If you haven’t read the book, you may not want to read this paragraph of the review. I wanted to give my opinion on the ending. A lot of people seem to dislike it because of its ambiguity. Me? I didn’t mind not knowing what happened to Jonas. It was obvious to me that he was going to be fine. I wanted to know what happened to the people he left behind. What about Asher and Fiona? And Jonas’s family? Do they change for the better? Those were the questions I wanted badly to be answered.

If I had a top-ten list of Newbery books, this would make the cut. Is that recommendation enough?

Speaking of the SAYR, we're reading our next book, Till We Have Faces by C.S. Lewis, in a couple of weeks. I would really encourage you to sign up if you think you can make time for it. It's open to anyone, and the discussions are a lot of fun.