Book Review: The Bard and the Bible

I recently took a walk down memory lane when I set about to purge our basement of some lingering papers from my college days. The papers were primarily notes: both my own written notes in notebooks and the mimeographed notebooks I purchased for particular classes (yes, I know my age is showing). I also tossed old blue book exams. What I couldn't part with were the papers I wrote for those classes (can a writer easily discard a work on which they have invested any amount of time or effort?). Seeing those old notebooks really took me back. I found myself wishing for a chance to study in such a way again without going back to school.

Then that opportunity presented itself in the form of this excellent devotional, The Bard and the Bible, written by Bob Hostetler. When I studied and traveled with the Wheaton-in-England group, I took a comprehensive course on Shakespeare. But those days are like a faint whisper. This book allowed me to soak in more about the famous bard and contemplate similar sentiments from Scripture alongside the lines from Shakespeare's plays and poetry. Because I was offered a copy of the book in exchange for an honest review, I tackled the devotional in a few separate doses instead of the daily readings it is set up to provide. I would happily go back and use this as a devotional some year in the future and can easily see myself purchasing this book as a gift for some literary friend.

In The Bard and the Bible: A Shakespeare Devotional, Hostetler provides small snippets of Shakespeare paired with verses from the Bible to create a daily dose of both the best playwright of all time and the most popular book of all time. The quotations are primarily arranged in the order the plays were written and the lines in the order of their appearance within the plays. Although each daily devotional is brief, the words present enough truth and trivia to lead to deeper contemplation.

Moreover, one usually doesn't anticipate humor in a devotional format. Hostetler manages to bring many a smile with his little quips interspersed throughout the text. At one point, I had to chuckle when the trivia blurb (at the bottom of each page) mentioned that The Two Gentlemen of Verona has a dog as a member of the cast and then observed that "it is not a speaking part." I laughed again when the longest word used in Shakespeare's works was identified as "honorificabilitudinitatibus." Now there's a mouthful worthy of a snicker or two.

I loved the closing question for each day. They often read like a writing prompt and opened up a whole realm to consider and weigh individually. For example, the question on October 30th was "What metaphors would describe your life?" I could easily see myself using this book to prompt a daily writing session in the morning to kick off whatever writing needs to be tackled for the day. The questions were perfect for writers, but would also appeal to any individual wishing to take the devotional thought and apply the concepts to life.

This year-long devotional is sure to appeal to writers, and eager literature students, to those in the mood for a chuckle, as well as those seeking serious contemplation, to readers with no knowledge of Shakespeare and to readers who have taken Shakespeare 101. The focus is unique. The passages are noteworthy. The concluding questions are thought-provoking. There is much to be gleaned in this volume. In the words of the playwright himself: "how far that little candle throws its beams!"

When the Start of School Interrupts Your Favorite Camp

What's a mom to do when the start of school interrupts a favorite annual Bible camp? This was the dilemma many months back when we first learned that CBLI (Central Bible and Leadership Institute) ran from July 30th (it always begins on the final Saturday of the month, but this year that Saturday was very late in the month) to August 7th and school resumes on Wednesday, August 3rd. My initial response was simply to keep them out of the first three days of school, but alas it was Trevor's transition year to the middle school. I couldn't exactly expect him to return on Monday, the only confused and lost kid in a sea of students who had already learned the ropes the previous week. Thus, we landed on a compromise: the boys would miss one day of school and two and a half days of the camp.

So, last Saturday we drove up to the camp and began to settle in. When the settled in feeling just started to take root, we packed up and returned home. Thankfully, we discovered an easy route to the camp that takes us four and a half hours (this is better than our old ways of visiting Grandma for one meal and then taking a road closer to her house, making the trip almost six hours). Still, it's 4-1/2 hours! Groan!

Here are the boys, bright and early, awaiting the school bus on their first day back:

I enjoyed sitting on our wonderful, newly-refurbished porch to watch them wait for the bus. Hopefully, they will get off to a great start and do well in fourth and sixth grade. Praying also for a great end to our CBLI encampment (so glad we attended despite the obstacles and setbacks).

Book Review: Life As We Knew It

The back cover of this audio book, Life As We Knew It, identifies Susan Beth Pfeffer as the author of more than seventy books for children and young adults, yet somehow I've never read any of her other books. I stumbled upon the third book in this series, the Last Survivors series, and realized that I wanted to read the books in order, so I returned the third book and checked out this audio version of the first book in the series. Having invested in the first book, I'm still not sure whether I will continue with the series.

Told in diary form, Miranda's story is riveting and terrifying. Her world implodes as a meteor collides with the moon and alters its position in the sky. Suddenly, life is no longer the same. The climate is permanently altered. Tsunamis, earthquakes, and volcanic eruptions threaten civilization. Resources become scarce. The daily hum of life is permanently altered as schools and businesses close down. Can Miranda and her family hope to survive this devastating turn of events? Great premise, no?

While the idea was enticing, the execution was less so. It is difficult to write a novel in epistolary form. You have to carefully develop characters and present plot points with a realistic flow. I believe the author did an okay job at this. For the most part, the novel came from a clearly teenage perspective and inserted information gently. But, the world still failed to be entirely realistic.

I believe if these events had really occurred, human nature would kick in. There would be far more chaos and crime than was presented in the novel. If Miranda's family managed to secure a hoard of food for themselves, someone who failed to do so would, in all probability, come and seize the food without thought for law or order. It seemed unrealistic that people would file through the stores purchasing what they needed at the outset of the disaster. Looting would seem inevitable. I wondered how the family could hole up in their house for a year without a single person attempting to unlawfully gain access to their food supply. When a neighbor finally approaches, it is simply with a request for medicine, politely executed. It was like a sanitized version of the end of the world.

My biggest complaint would be with the portrayal of Christian characters in the novel. It is clearly evident that the author is an agnostic with a venom for anyone who might choose to respond to crisis by clinging to faith in God. The main Christian character believes that God wants her to starve as a mark of her dedication to the Lord. She pleads with Miranda to accept Christ while there is still time. She bears a crush for her male minister and blindly follows him, while he accepts the food from his parishioners without concern for their well-being. It was nauseating. Moreover, I found it hard to believe that this supposed polite world, where no one loots or kills to survive, responds in such a favorable manner without any confidence or conscience toward a supreme being.

I desperately wanted to place myself in this alternate reality and entertain the what-ifs of such a situation, but much of it felt unrealistic and incredibly biased against the beliefs I hold dear. The writing was engaging. I never grew tired of the story or bored with it. In my final analysis, I would give the premise five stars but the presentation of the idea only three stars. I'm still not sure whether I will seek out the second book. After endless hopelessness and despair, the conclusion magically provided hope in the form of a government allotment of food supplies. Moreover, I've read that the second book is more a companion book, in that it doesn't move the plot along any further, but simply tells the same story in another location of the United States. Not sure I care enough about the characters to see them through this end-of-the-world-without-God scenario.

Book Review: How to Write Like Tolstoy

I'm always keen to find unfamiliar books on the subject of writing. I happened to notice this on the shelves of new acquisitions at our local library. While I don't aspire to write like the greats (that seems an unrealistic goal), I did want to discover a thing or two about how they handled certain aspects of writing. The book was not only interesting, it was also very entertaining and informative.

The broad list of topics was contained within a great sense of structure. The first chapter begins, where else, but with beginnings. Then the author moves on to things like character, point-of-view, dialogue, irony, rhythm, and revision. In his final chapter, he focuses on the importance of a good ending.

I thought this advice from Edith Wharton was excellent for choosing the best point-of-view: "Who saw this thing I am going to tell about? By whom do I mean that it shall be reported? Who is listening? On what occasion is the story being told, and why?"

Richard Cohen told of a fun little game he played once with his writing students. The game is called "Consequences" and involves each student beginning with a man's name (A), then passing their paper to the next to add a woman's name (B). From there it is passed further to receive a location (C). The final four steps involve adding "he said to her ..." (D), "she said to him ..." (E), "and the consequence was..." (F), and finally, "and the world said ..." (G). In this way, they created mini-stories where one character met another in a particular setting, engaged in significant dialogue, and meandered into a denouement. I want to share that one with the leader of my library writer's group. It sounds like such fun.

Some of the humorous bits included simple stories about writers. In one, a writer wrote one word, "the," then dashed off to a party down the hall. He returned briefly to sit at his typewriter and added three more words, "hell with it" before returning to the party. I laughed out loud. Another author would begin to write and whenever he reached a place where he didn't know what to put down, he would simply type a curse word and go on. When the first draft was completed, the work was riddled with profanity. Through revision, the author would get the manuscript into a state where it was eventually squeaky clean, with not a curse word to be seen. In similar fashion, Cohen quotes Mark Twain's advice: "Substitute 'damn' every time you're inclined to write 'very;' your editor will delete it and the writing will be just as it should be."

I think the little stories about author habits made the whole book thoroughly entertaining. Thus, I was so busy laughing that I didn't even realize I was also learning. It did amuse me that this author mentioned a book I had just reviewed unfavorably (because she didn't manage to make the learning entertaining enough). I love it when my reading seems to follow a theme without any conscious effort on my part. I would happily read this book again for both the insights and the amusing anecdotes.

Music Camp 2016 In the Books

Another music camp has come and gone. Once again, I was asked (graciously) to be on faculty (this time in primarily assistance roles - shwew!) and once again, I had a marvelous time. We figured out that this is my 5th year on the faculty and not since my first year have I been able to attend with one of my sons as a camper. Thankfully, this year was Trevor's first year that he took any interest in going (I'm guessing this was prompted a bit by his upcoming role in the percussion section of his middle school band).

My first assignment was to administer the theory tests to all campers. I kept waiting and waiting for Trevor to make his way into the dining hall, so I could see how much theory he actually knows. Alas, he never arrived. When I checked on this at the faculty meeting, that first afternoon, I discovered that his counselor never took he or another few boys to their placement tests (not for theory or band placement). As a result, that evening he was pulled aside by the percussion instructor and simply asked a few questions. Because he didn't try out, he ended up being placed in the beginner band (a placement he felt was in error because he could perform far better than his peers in the band). Even so, he was able to shine in his track and had a good time making a friend in one of the other percussion members in that band.

At the first evening program, the faculty was introduced to the campers in a rousing game of "Would You Rather." Since the theme was based upon Star Wars, most of the questions I was asked were hard to answer because I've only seen three movies and many a moon ago.

On the evening of the second full day, Trevor wanted to go home. The heat was really taking a toll on him (most days were in the 90s with a real feel over a hundred). When he went to sign up for his afternoon elective, all the indoor games slots were filled and so they placed him in the hiking track. He's a bulky boy and hiking in the best of conditions would be a challenge for him. He gave up after ten minutes and ended up standing in the sun for the rest of the hour, waiting for the others to return. He was none too pleased to discover that the evening program required more walking in the heat as we participated in a music scavenger hunt. Still, he survived and ended up really enjoying his camp experience, despite the heat.

Before we knew it, the middle of the week arrived and with it the promise of the annual faculty trek to Steak-and-Shake. We always pile into a bunch of vans and descend upon the unsuspecting restaurant, requiring two lengthy tables to fit us all. Conversation was good and it was such fun to spend time among the adults after pouring into so many kids throughout the week.

Another highlight of the encampment was the opportunity to play my horn with the faculty band. We attempted a rather difficult Star Wars arrangement and I was given the solo horn part (even though I had offered to cover 2nd Horn, not wanting to be responsible for any unexpected solo). There was a section in the music where I was supposed to play slurred triplets of E-C-E, E-C-E, ... over and over. Because the fingering is the same for both notes, it was all lip to try to get the notes out. In the end, I gave up and simply counted those measures off - ha!

I think my favorite piece that we played was a cornet solo featuring Lynda Carr Cooper. It was called "People Need the Lord." Lynda is a phenomenal musician and the piece is absolutely beautiful. Plus, my part provided a soothing harmony for the melody line.

My favorite assignment this year was a role as assistant leader for a Creative Writing Elective. All of our campers in the class were enthusiastic about writing (such a pleasure to meet young people with similar passions to my own). I had prepared about a hundred writing prompts and each camper was given a day to write up a post for a blog about camp. The girls (all girls) had a wonderful time getting thoughts down and sharing what they had written with everyone else in the class.

At the final concert of the week, the intermediate choir (the track I assisted with) did a fabulous job. They enjoyed both of the two numbers selected by the leader and I was able to direct one of the pieces (great fun). By the time the concert was over and our instruments and belongings collected, both Trevor and I were pleasantly exhausted. We stopped for a special Culver's treat on the way home to celebrate a fantastic shared camp experience.

Book Review: Between You and Me

I listened to Between You and Me: Confessions of a Comma Queen by Mary Norris. Perhaps I would have had different feelings for the book if I had read it in paper form, with the added plus of being able to skim and pick and choose what I wanted to focus on and what I wanted to skip past. I don't know. I'm not a big fan of grammar and the picking apart of correct usage to begin with. I don't relish the chance to review and correct someone else's words. However, as a writer, I know that grammar is a necessary tool and one that I could utilize better with more instruction. Thus, my desire to pick up this book. It was an experience akin to poking oneself in the eye repeatedly with an ice pick. I'm not sure why I kept listening except that I was hoping to glean wisdom and, frankly, didn't have another audio book in reserve to turn to during my daily walk on the treadmill.

Alas, it was tiresome, tiresome, tiresome! I felt every. single. mile for the whole seven days it took to complete. Even the humor fell flat for me and I couldn't rouse myself to feel very enthusiastic about what was presented. I know that the author was attempting to provide a combined reference/humor book, but I could have done without full sections of the book (one chapter devoted to profanity - why? seriously! why would this be in a book discussing grammar? - one chapter devoted to the history of the pencil and her preference for a number one pencil). As for the profanity chapter, I was just lucky my young boys didn't enter the room during the bantering of expletives flying about through the performance.

The author comes well-recommended. She is, after all, a member of The New Yorker's copy department. If she is a lover of language, as the back cover proclaims, she didn't manage to pass her love on to this reader. Instead, my own love of language was diminished in listening to her diatribes about the various subjects she chose. While I did receive instruction on tricky things like "who" versus "whom," "that" versus "which," dangling modifiers, and compound words, it was still as boring as could be and even the injected humor failed to cheer me up. The only cheer I proclaimed was a hearty "Praise God," when the book was over and I could begin my next audio experience.

Surely there has to be someone who could make the learning of grammar a delightful experience. If you know of such a book, please enlighten me. Maybe someone will come up with a video game where the player receives prizes and advances levels when they can correctly use grammar. Just don't look to me to come up with such a game. Grammar remains a necessary evil in my book.

Book Review: The Weight of Shadows

Guilt can be a perilous thing to carry. In The Weight of Shadows, Alison Strobel crafts a sensitive novel portraying the devastation of guilt and the power of grace. Three characters in the novel are broken by their pasts and their lives intersect on a trajectory that demonstrates God's love and forgiveness.

Kim is a young woman who has never felt the love of family or a sense of belonging. She is drawn to her new boyfriend, Rick, because he provides that for her. His provisions are not without a price, however, and Kim is willing to pay that price because she thinks she must atone for past sins.

Joshua is a man dealing with the grief of great loss, raising his only daughter alone after losing his wife to cancer. What's more, his in-laws hold him responsible for his wife's death because he encouraged her to seek alternative treatments. Now they are trying to do everything they can to seize custody of his daughter. Because of this, he cannot risk assisting his neighbor, Kim, even though he can tell that things are desperate for her.

Debbie is determined to save the lives of women who are in bad relationships. She cannot seem to find an acceptable relationship for herself, but she is driven to meet the needs of her women at the shelter she runs. Debbie, Joshua, and Kim are on a collision course and because of God's love, it will bring a satisfying resolution.

As far as Christian fiction goes, I felt Alison Strobel did a good job of crafting a meaningful story without sinking it under the weight of the message. Indeed, I thought if a non-Christian picked this book up, they would find a gentle introduction to the power of God's grace. Then, I went to view the Amazon reviews and found that almost all of the negative reviews highlighted a discontent with the Christian aspects of the novel. These readers felt the writing was heavy-handed with Christianese. So, perhaps the message still came off as more important than the story (my chief complaint against Christian fiction).

I, personally, thought the book was good. Her characters were realistic. The situations they were in brought out subtle opportunities to shine God's light through without being overbearing. Even though the resolution was a bit too coincidental and too tidy, I found it satisfying, nonetheless. I would read more from this author.