I’m a bit behind the intended reading time for this short, short, short novella (illustrated story), but it finally arrived in my mailbox, and I had so been looking forward to it.
Matchless is a retelling of Hans Christian Anderson’s “The Little Match Girl” with a bit more depth to the story. For those readers a fan of the original tale, readers a fan of one of the masters of re-explorations of known stories, or readers looking for a Christmas tale, this is certainly a good choice. It does need a forewarning that while this might have more depth than the original fable, it certainly does not have the depth and exploration of characters as Maguire’s other works.
While I can’t say that I fell anymore in love with Maguire after reading this piece, I can say that there was enough in the tale to make it worth the 15 minutes I spent reading it. And it was a pleasure to look over the illustrations in the book as well, knowing that they were done by Maguire, helping to shine a light on what he felt were the most important visuals of the story.
Take your time and find a stellar deal on this book if you are going to be paying for it. But it is a nice piece to have in your holiday collection.
Okay, I’ll be honest with you. I don’t really know the biblical story of Elijah. Like, at all. But, I had read and appreciatedThe Alchemist, biblical fiction is right up my alley, even if I don’t know the basis, and I had picked this book up twice now (once on the $2 clearance shelf, and once at Book Bums - a coffee shop/lending library in Olde West Chester), so I figured it was time to read it.
And, wow.
Maybe once a year, I find a book that hits all the right chords of prose. Once every couple of years, I finish a book, close it, and hold it to my chest, hoping a bit more of the seamless goodness will make its way to my heart through osmosis.
No, this is not a book for all audiences, but it is one that I would have trouble NOT recommending to someone. Even if you are not a believer in one higher power (be it a trinity or a solo figure), this is a book that helps to define what it is that makes a human being a great one: the ability to challenge himself and the powers acting in his life; the ability to learn to love and to lose; the ability to set your own goals, even when no success has come your way in quite sometime.
So many have deemed The Alchemist a life-changing novel. This is Coelho’s masterpiece for me… at least of the ones I’ve read so far, and I will certainly be looking to complete my collection.
The Know-It-All was yet another terrific memoir by AJ Jacobs, this time exploring the Encyclopædia Britannica, from A to Z. (And yes, I did learn that the æ symbol is known as a ligature…)
While the book is more about Jacob’s personal life during the year it takes him to read all of the volumes of the reference collection, this memoir can be read as a CliffsNotes version of the encyclopedia. And it is a very entertaining study guide. There were entries that I wanted to dog ear, in order to go learn more about them - such as Sternberg’s theories on intelligence, Ecclesiastes, and Victoria Woodhull (whom I dimly recall was the subject of one of my high school history projects).
I see lead ups to another work by Jacobs, which I loved (perhaps even a bit more than The Know-It-All) - The Year of Living Biblically. He is set to figure out the human aspect of the world, and where each individual has learning opportunities, in both scholastic endeavors and moral endeavors.
I highly recommend this book to anyone who loves to learn, who loves to be reminded of all there is to learn in this world, and who is able to reconcile the fact that they don’t and can’t know everything with the amount of joy a challenge to grow can bring to them.
A mix of peppers, onions, oyster mushrooms, garlic, tomatoes and seasonings cooked in a stew pot for about 30 minutes. Then, I cooked a chicken breast and some rice, mixed in a very small portion of the cacciatore sauce, and enjoyed.
What I love most about this recipe is the rest of the uses for the leftover sauces. Tomorrow will be tilapia with a tomato cream sauce over it. Lunches for me this week will be tuna salad with some of the sauce mixed in. And then I have two meals’ sauces ready to go in the freezer for later on in the month… say when I have the audit at the office going on.
With the promise that this was a book that CS Lewis loved, I had high hopes for it. While it did not live up to my hopes, it was still an enjoyable book, even with some of the cliché and trite snippets of themes… children should respect their elders, should appreciate life for all of the work that is needed to be able to live it fully, should not be given too much hot air to put in their own heads.
As a modern parent, there are certainly pieces of this book that I could appreciate… such as the need to teach a child that life is not all fun and games, and that respect is earned and not just given… but at the same time, MacDonald implied that children should not be praised for their little accomplishments, and I could not disagree more. In order to teach a child to say “Thank you” I believe that child needs to hear it. In order for a child to learn to apologize, they need to know that adults can own their mistakes as well.
This book would have gotten higher praise from me were it to concentrate more on the magic of the wise old woman and her ways of teaching the two little girls in the story how to lead a better life rather than repeating the lessons nearly verbatim over and over.
A good, fun read, and something that will likely make me look for more MacDonald, but it did not become one of my prized books.
In 2009, I read 47 books that were longer than the ones in Gabriel’s library. (I do not have Dr. Suess, The Bunnies are not in their Bed, any board books, nor their likes in this count.) I had books on my nightstand that would have finished off the goal for me, but I admit it, I gave up to spend time with live people instead of finishing off a goal.
That calculates to a 94% of my goal of 50 (47 books). It’s an A, so I call it a win… especially given that I also worked full time the entire year; raised two healthy - and mostly happy - boys; cooked dinner a good 75% of the nights of the year (I’ll give Kris 4-5%); wrote 31 poems in October; wrote over 50,000 words of a new novel in November;and was completely ready for Christmas before December 24th.
In 2010, I’ll be trying to finish 45 books. Yes, the goal is coming down, but I’m also starting to realize that goals mean very little if I don’t fully appreciate the labor that goes into them.
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